


Family and Friends

by lauraeb5



Category: Danny Phantom, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Comedy, Danny Fenton Needs A Hug, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, Jack Frost Needs a Hug (Guardians of Childhood), No Romance, Obvi I mean it's Jack and Danny, Serious Injuries, but nothing graphic, it gets dark guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:53:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 44,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23517226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lauraeb5/pseuds/lauraeb5
Summary: The Guardians are worried about Jack. Nothing they do seems to get through to him. He just seems to be slipping away from them. But then one day, they meet someone who they think could be the answer to their problem.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood)
Comments: 116
Kudos: 478





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I finally managed to get an account on this site, so I decided to transfer my stories from fanfiction.net over to here. This story is complete and I will update it once a week on Mondays cause that's when I'm uploading this right now. Hope you all enjoy it!
> 
> Oh also, this is part of a mental AU I have where Danny no longer ages, and he leaves Amity Park because it hurts too much. In this AU, he meets Jack when they realize that Danny can see him and they become friends. Just so ya know...
> 
> Yeah, this whole thing starts off as kinda a series of one shots (it was my first story) but it developes a story as it goes on, so yeah. I mean, when I first started writing it I intended for it to be a one shot, but kept going as I got more ideas and eventually it turned into this. Soooo.... ya know. Take that as you will I guess.
> 
> Have fun.

The Guardians were having their monthly meeting. This was something that they had never done before the whole Pitch fiasco, but it seemed appropriate now. Officially, the meetings were to check up on each other and make sure that Pitch was not secretly gaining power again, but unofficially, they were just to hang out. And, if the Guardians were to be truly honest with themselves, it was a way to keep an eye on Jack.

It had been forty years since Jack had become a Guardian, and the other Guardians had gotten to know him quite well. It was fairly obvious to them that Jack had some pretty deep-seated issues from his 300 year isolation, and they did their best to help him, but it never truly seemed to work. Jack didn’t want to talk to them about his problems, and they didn’t feel as though they had the right to push. Afterall, it was mostly their fault Jack was the way he was. They did their best, but 300 years was a long time, and some days it seemed as if Jack had not truly forgiven them for it. 

This was the problem on the other Guardians’ minds as they waited for Jack to arrive. They were worried because at the last meeting, Jack had gotten extremely angry at something Bunny had said and stormed out. None of them had seen him since. To make matters even worse, they had no idea why Jack had gotten so angry.

“I swear, it was just normal teasin’ like we always do!” Bunny yelled, throwing his arms up. The other Guardians had been interrogating him about the interaction for the last half hour, and he was getting sick of it. “It’s not my fault that frostbite has thin skin.”

“Oh, what if he doesn’t come!” Tooth was frantic, flitting about the room as if maybe Jack was just hiding somewhere. “He has never been this late before.” 

“Jack will come.” North said confidently. “And when he does, we will fix.”

“The kid isn’t a toy, North. You can’t just fix him,” Bunny snorted as he fiddled with his boomerangs. The whole conversation was stressing him out, and his boomerangs were the only things that could consistently calm him down.

“Maybe not,” North acknowledged. “But we will try.”

“Try what?”

The whole group jerked, turning to look at Jack, who was standing at the edge of the room. The whole group, that is, except for Sandy. He had already noticed that Jack was there and had tried to tell the rest of them, with little success. 

“Jack!” North boomed, throwing his arms out like he expected a hug. “Good to see you!” He paused for a moment, looking a little sheepish. “Eh, how long have you been standing there.”

Jack smirked in reply.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he asked, swinging his staff around to rest on his shoulders. In truth, he had only just walked in, and had no clue what they were talking about, but he saw no reason the other Guardians should know that.

“Anyway, sorry I’m late. I had something…” Jack trailed off, looking suddenly pensive. He glanced over at the Guardians, looking more nervous than they had ever seen him. He appeared to be weighing something in his mind, before finally making a decision. 

“Actually…” he said slowly. “I could show you guys. If you want.” Jack refused to look any of them in the eye, and seemed almost embarrassed. The other Guardians shared a look before stepping forward. 

“Of course, Jack. You can tell us anything.” Tooth was barely refraining from cheering. Jack was opening up to them! This was more than she could ever have dreamed of, especially after last month’s disaster. 

Jack smiled softly at Tooth, before turning back to the door to the room. 

“You can come in now,” he called softly. The Guardians were confused until a small, white head poked out from behind the door frame.

More than one mouth fell open as a child ran into the room, clinging to Jack’s legs and hiding behind them. He looked to be about 13 or 14, and had pure white hair and eyes so blue they seemed almost to glow. He was wearing a hoodie that was just like Jack’s, except it was green, not blue. He was a little tanner than Jack, but besides that, they looked eerily similar. 

Jack placed a hand on the boys head, and looked up at the other Guardians. “Guys, this is Danny.”

Danny waved shyly at the Guardians before burying his face in Jack’s back. Jack smiled down at him before looking back at the Guardians.

“He’s a little shy,” he explained, giving Danny another fond look. Jack crouched down so that he was at eye level with Danny and gave him an encouraging smile. “Why don’t you do the thing we talked about?”

Danny looked a little unsure, but he nodded, and inched his way over to Tooth. He held out his hand and concentrated. Before their eyes, a rose formed of the purest ice came into existence on his hand. Danny gave the rose to Tooth, who took it gently. Tooth stared at the rose in awe. It was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. 

“Thank you Danny.” she said quietly. “I love it.”

Danny turned bright red and ran back to Jack, hiding behind him once more. Bunny still hadn’t moved from the time Danny had entered the room, while Sandy seemed to be running through a series of different exclamation points and question marks. North looked as if Christmas had come early, a strange mix of joy and panic. Clearing his throat, he stepped forward.

“Jack.” He paused, slightly overwhelmed by the trust Jack was showing them. “We are so glad that you have trusted us with this. How long have you…” he hesitated, unsure of how to word his question. “had… Danny?”

There was a pause where Danny and Jack just looked at each other, before they suddenly burst into laughter. They other Guardians stared in confusion as Jack collapsed to his knees, laughing hysterically while Danny curled up in a ball in midair, laughing so hard he began to choke. 

“Hey!” If there was anything that could break Bunny out of his shock, it was Jack laughing at him. “What’s so funny?”

“Sorry,” Jack said, finally getting control of his laughter. “I just didn’t think you would fall for it.”

“I told you we could pull it off!” Danny yelled, opening his eyes that were now green for some reason. “I only wish we could have held onto it longer.”

“Wait, now hold a titch. Are you saying that Jack isn't your Daddy?” Bunny wanted to be very clear on that.

“Well,” Danny had a spark of mischief in his eyes. “My dad’s name is Jack, it just isn’t this Jack.” He finished his statement by pointing at Jack, who was still a giggling mess on the floor. Danny gave Jack a long look before shuddering. “Thank goodness for that.”

“Hey!” Jack protested. “I would be an excellent father! No bedtimes, homework or chores! My kids would love me!”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that most people would call that being a terrible father, but what would I know. My dad tried to kill me pretty regularly, so my opinion may be a little skewed.”

The other Guardians watched as Jack and Danny continued to bicker and tease, shock slowly wearing off. Not surprisingly, Bunny was the one who broke first.

“Wait, hold up. Jack. Did you really bring some random kid to the North Pole?”

“Oi! I am not a kid.” Danny sniffed and raised his chin imperiously. “I am 62 years old.” He suddenly grinned, flipping up into the air to land upside down above Bunny. “I can see why you would be confused though. I do have amazing skin. I use this special technique Jack taught me. I mean, he looks great for his age, so I figured that whatever he was doing had to be working.” Throughout this entire speech, Danny was poking, pinching, and generally annoying Bunny. 

Jack leaned against his staff, making no move to help Bunny out. “He said I didn’t look a day over 290 when we first met. It honestly made my day.” Jack wiped a fake tear from his eye as Danny blew him a kiss, still bothering Bunny despite Bunny’s attempts to stop him. 

Sandy raised his hand, getting both white haired boys’ attention before creating a series of images above his head. He started with two boys, clearly Jack and Danny, standing apart from each other. He then had the two shake hands, followed by a calendar and a question mark.

“When did we meet?” Danny guesed. At Sandy’s nod, he continued. “Oh, it must have been nearly twenty years ago at this point. We hit it off right away, what with our similar looks and talents.”

“And personalities.” Jack added in. Danny gave him an affronted look. 

“Excuse me, are you calling me a pain in the butt with a severe lack of respect for authority and a tendency to make jokes of which no one appreciates the brilliance?”

Jack paused for a moment, before clearly enunciating “Yes. Except for the joke part. Your jokes aren’t funny. Though I am touched that you seem to think mine are.”

“Oh come on,” Danny whined, finally leaving Bunny alone to float over to Jack. “My jokes are hilarious.” 

“Danny, Danny, Danny, my sweet naive Danny. Puns aren’t funny. Everyone knows that.” Jack explained patiently. Danny merely stuck out his tongue before crossing his arms mutinously. Jack only snickered before mussing up Danny’s hair, ignoring the resulting yelp. “Ah, you’ll learn eventually.”

“I don’t understand.” Tooth interrupted. “If you have known each other for twenty years, why are you only introducing us now?”

“Well,” Jack began. “We noticed pretty early on how similar we looked and figured it would make a pretty good prank to make you guys think we were father and son.”

“We planned for years, to make sure it was perfect.” Danny added, now lounging in the air as if he were in an invisible hammock. “Though of all the scenarios we planned out, none went as perfectly as what just happened.” 

“Right.” Jack said. “We really need to thank you guys for being such a perfect audience. Anyway, we planned out the prank, but decided that it was so good that we needed to save it for a time for when you guys really deserved it, and the opportunity came up last month.”

All the Guardians looked a little uncomfortable at that, especially Bunny.

“Still don’t know why he was so upset.” he muttered. Unfortunately, Jack heard him.

His face darkened, and the temperature in the room began to drop. “Of course you don’t,” he spat. “Why would you?” Danny sat up in his invisible hammock, his own smile slipping away.

“Hey.” Danny settled on the floor next Jack, who looked away. “Hey, look at me.” When Jack refused, Danny sighed before putting a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

“You know what he said,” Jack said miserably. Danny nodded, looking incredibly sad.

“Yeah, I know.” Danny put his hand under Jack’s chin, forcing him to look at him. “But he doesn’t. It isn’t fair to be mad at him for that. You know that.”

For a moment, it seemed as though Jack was going to storm out again, before he groaned.

“Fine! I’ll let it go. But next time, I’m freezing his warren, got it?”

Danny grinned, all traces of sadness gone from his face. “I’ll help! I’ve always wanted to see the Warren!”

Before Bunny could protest, Jack clapped his hands together. “Well! Now that that’s all cleared up, we gotta run. We told the kids that we would create a lightshow for them, and we gotta get moving if we want to get there on time.”

Danny perked up, his feet leaving the floor once more. “Yeah! I almost forgot. Let’s go!”

Both boys were in the air before the other Guardians had truly comprehended what was happening. They flew out the window, Danny pausing just long enough to yell back at North, “Thanks for having me!” before disappearing from sight. 

They left a stunned silence in their wake. The Guardians blinked at each other before Tooth broke the silence.

“Well, that was interesting.”

“Interesting? Interesting!? Now we have two ice making trouble makers, an’ they both know where my Warren is! I mean, who even is this Danny? We know nothin’ about him!”

“Maybe not, but we know enough.” North interrupted before Bunny’s rant could really get going. The others looked at him in confusion, Sandy sending up a question mark. 

North, seeing these looks, explained. “We know that Jack likes him. And that he likes Jack.” 

Seeing that the others still looked confused, he sighed.

“Did you not see that? Danny not only knew what was bothering Jack, but! He was able to calm him down.” North nodded, a satisfied look on his face. “They are good for each other. Like brothers.”

Comprehension dawned on the others as they finally understood what North was talking about. Sandy smiled while Bunny relaxed a little. Tooth merely looked at the ice rose which she still held, before nodding in agreement. 

The contemplative silence was broken by Bunny, who snorted slightly. North gave him a cross look.

“What?”

Bunny merely shook his head a little. 

“It’s nothin’ really,” he said. “It’s just, we may not be able to fix Jack, but I think that kid might be able to.”

The other Guardians agreed as miles away, two ageless boys laughed as they flew off, ready to face the world together.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case any of you were wondering, the timeline for this fic goes something like this: Danny became a halfa eight years before Jack became a Guardian. Danny left home when he was 17, and the events of the Guardian movie were five years after that. Danny and Jack met 20 years after Jack became a Guardian, so Danny spent 25 years alone, and then 20 years with Jack, making him 62 at the time that the first chapter takes place. TADA! I did math! YAY!
> 
> There are quite a few time jumps in this, so. You may want to read the authors notes to try and keep track of when things are happening. Just a thought.
> 
> This fic is when Danny and Jack first met, so twenty years after the Guardian movie. Enjoy.

Danny hunched his shoulders as he walked down the street. He wasn’t sure where he was, or where he was going, he just kept walking. He didn’t ever get tired, so he never really felt the need to stop.

He glanced up, taking in his surroundings for the first time in a while. He looked into a furniture store window and froze. Staring right back at him was his reflection, caught in a mirror that was proudly on display.

Danny hated looking at his reflection. It just reminded him of what he was: a freak. One that would stay the same forever. It was even worse when he was Fenton. As Phantom, he seemed otherworldly, and it was not so obvious how strange his unchanging appearance was, but as Fenton…

A scowl appeared on Danny’s face. As Fenton, he couldn’t pretend. And he had pretended. For a long time. Or maybe he had been in denial. He couldn’t quite remember. It had been a long time ago now.

Danny had first noticed his… condition, three years after the accident. They had gone to visit his aunt on her birthday. When she had seen him, she’d laughed. 

“Look at you! You haven’t changed a bit since I last saw you!” 

At the time, the comment had gone over his head, except for the fact that it was a little embarrassing. It was a few days later when it came back to him.

He frowned as he lay on his bed, the words playing over and over again in his head. It was weird that he hadn’t changed. The last time he had seen his aunt was three years ago, right after…

Danny sat bolt upright. Right after the accident! That was when fear crept into his heart. He tried to dismiss it, but it was hard. The main clue was the fact that he hadn’t grown, not even an inch from the time he had first stepped into the portal. He hadn’t even gained any weight, or lost any for that matter. The only real change to his appearance were the scars he got ghost fighting, and even those faded with time. Despite all this, Danny refused to consider the implications. It wasn’t until he realized that he hadn’t even needed a haircut once in all that time that he finally admitted he needed help. 

“Clockwork!” Danny yelled, flying into the mysterious ghost’s lair. “I need to talk to you.”

“Yes.” Clockwork didn’t even turn to look at Danny.

“Yes we need to talk?” Danny asked, unsure of what Clockwork meant.

“Yes, you are immortal. You will never age.”

Danny stared at Clockwork. He couldn’t tell if his mind was working a thousand miles a minute, or if it had just stopped completely. He had thought that maybe his aging was messed up a little, but… immortal? That, that just didn’t make any sense. 

Danny shook his head slowly.

“No. No I can’t be immortal. How could I not age? I’m still alive!”

Clockwork finally turned to look at Danny. He seemed sad.

“You are not alive, Daniel. At least, not in the traditional sense. The accident killed you.”

Danny shivered as his whole world view shifted. No nonononono NO! He was not dead. He had a pulse, and he slept and got older and  _ lived _ , just like everyone else, he was just like everyone else, please, please, it’s not true, please no.

Danny didn’t realize he had been talking out loud until Clockwork interrupted him. 

“I’m sorry Daniel, truly I am, but it is true. Your body does not function like a normal human’s.”

Danny took a shuddering breath as he wiped away tears that he had only just noticed. “What do you mean?” His voice sounded tiny and scared.

Clockwork sighed. “The accident killed you. No one could survive such an extreme electrical shock. But at the same time it saved your life. Your entire body was infused with ectoplasm. That same ectoplasm is what runs your body. You do not need food, water, or sleep. You only think you do because your body is used to it. If you were to stop eating and sleeping, the ectoplasm would kick in to make up the difference.”

Clockwork flew up to Danny and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Ectoplasm is regenerating Daniel, but it is also static. It will keep your body running, but it will not change it. Ghosts do not age, and neither will you. You can still be killed, but not by time.”

“But… but what about Vlad? He ages!” Danny refused to believe what Clockwork was telling him. He couldn’t accept it because if he did, it would change everything. 

“Vlad only got a faceful of ectoplasm. It is not a part of him, like it is for you. He spent years in the hospital as his body fought with it. Only when his normal bodily functions adjusted to its presence did he gain ghost powers. You did not have to go through this process because your normal bodily functions were replaced by the ectoplasmic ones.”

“And… and Dani?” Danny almost didn’t know what to hope for. He wouldn’t want Dani to have to feel the burden he was currently feeling, but he didn’t want to be alone either.

It seemed that Clockwork knew what he was thinking. He shook his head.

“Danielle is an imperfect clone. You know this. She will age slowly, perhaps at half the speed of a normal human, but she will age, and she will die.”

In the present, Danny shook his head, banishing the memories of the day when his life fell apart. He had fled Amity soon after that conversation, leaving without telling a single soul. He just didn’t know how he could tell his friends and family that he was functionally immortal.

Danny continued down the street, wrinkling his nose at the smell emanating from a nearby restaurant. Food was another reminder of how strange he was. He had given it up pretty quickly after leaving home. It was simply more convenient to not have to eat. He had been incredibly hungry for a few days when he first stopped eating. At first, he had been hopeful. Maybe Clockwork had been wrong! But then, one day he had woken up, not feeling hungry at all, and he hadn’t felt the need to eat once since then.

Sleep had taken him longer. He may not need it, but he longed for the oblivion it provided. If he had his way, he would sleep constantly. Unfortunately, fate apparently had it out for him. He had begun to suffer from terrible nightmares. Five years after he left home, they became so bad that he felt it wasn’t worth it anymore. He gave up on sleep for good after that. 

Nowadays, he just wandered. The elements didn’t bother him. In fact, his ice core meant that he preferred colder temperatures. He helped people out when he could, but mostly he just walked, trying to keep his mind off his terrible excuse for a life.

Which is what he was doing when a snowball hit him in the side of the head. 

Danny blinked, looking around. He had walked into a park at some point, and had gotten too close to a group of kids having a snowball fight. The kids had all stopped, staring at him with wide eyes. They were clearly afraid he would be upset.

Danny got as close to a smile as he could these days. He had always liked kids. During his Phantom days, they had never been afraid of him. While the adults screamed and called him evil, the kids always cheered him on as he fought. He decided to put them at ease.

“Who threw that?” Danny asked as he wiped the snow off his face. When one boy raised his hand, he smiled at him. “That was a great throw! You should be like, a professional snowball fighter.”

The kid’s face lit up. Now that his vision wasn’t clouded with ice, Danny was able to take in the whole group. It consisted of five kids of various ages and, to his surprise, one teenager. The teen looked odd. He had white hair and was barefoot. In fact, Danny thought he looked sort of like his phantom form when he was using his ice powers. Weirdly enough, he was carrying a shepherd's crook. 

Danny’s attention was pulled from the strange teen by the little boy in front of him.

“Did you really like my throw?” he asked. When Danny nodded, the kid exploded into speech.

“Thanks! You’re really nice! Most teenagers would yell at us. Like, this one time, Travis accidentally hit this big guy with a baseball, and he must of chased us for three whole blocks before we finally gave ‘im the slip. And this other time-”

“Whoa!” Danny held up his hands in mock surrender. “You’re going to talk my ear off!”

The kid blushed, before perking up.

“I’m Brennan. And these are Travis, Alex, Schylar, and Rex.”

Brennan pointed to each kid as he said their names, and Danny waved to each one. He noticed that Brennan didn’t mention the teen’s name, even though he was clearly part of the group. 

“What about your other friend? What’s his name.” Danny pointed at the teen, who was currently leaning against his stick, as he said this.

The kids all froze, staring at him blankly. The teen in question fell over.

“What’s wrong?” The question had seemed innocent enough to Danny, but maybe he had accidentally offended the teen by pointing at him or something?

Brennan’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times, before he finally sputtered out, “You can see Jack?”

Danny raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t expecting that.

“Of course I can. He’s standing right there. Well, I guess he’s lying down now.”

Hearing this, the teen, Jack apparently, jumped to his feet, blushing a little. He walked over to Danny, stopping just out of arm’s reach. 

“You can actually see me?” 

Danny blinked, surprised by how timid the voice was. He nodded, still unsure of what was going on. 

Jack ran a hand through his hair, before flashing Danny a dazzling smile. His teeth were shockingly white. It was almost distracting. 

“Well then, allow me to introduce myself.” Jack bowed low, sweeping his staff in front of him. “Jack Frost, Spirit of Winter, Guardian of Fun, generally great guy, at your service.”

Danny tilted his head to the side. 

“You’re a ghost?”

Jack seemed shocked at that reaction for a second, before he burst into laughter.

“Kinda, I guess, though probably not the type you’re thinking of. Ghosts are cousins to my kind. Nah, I’m a spirit, brought back to this world to ‘fulfill a great purpose’ and all that nonsense. I mostly just like to start snowball fights and tease my fellow spirits.” 

“Fellow spirits?”

Jack nodded eagerly. “Yeah, you know, like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and Sandman. Together we make the Guardians of Childhood. It’s our job to look after the children of the world. Speaking of which…”

Jack leaned in uncomfortably close to Danny and squinted his eyes at him.

“How can you see me? Only people who believe in spirits can see them, and kids have usually stopped believing at your age.”

Danny barely held back a smirk at that. Jack had no idea. In response to his question, he just shrugged. 

Jack gave him one last, long look before smiling again. He lept into the air, flipping to land on top of a lamp post. Danny felt his heart ache for a second at the sight. He hadn’t flown in years. He wasn’t sure if it was resentment for his ghost half or depression that kept him grounded, but all of a sudden he wanted to fly again. 

“You know, I haven’t seen you around here before. What brings you to Burgess?”

Burgess. Apparently that was the name of the town. Danny shrugged yet again, looking at the ground.

“Just passing through.” Uncomfortable with the questions, Danny changed the subject.

“So Jack, if you’re a spirit, you’ve probably been around for a long time.”

Jack nodded, leaning way to far out from the pole to be a person who respected gravity. He was watching the kids, who had grown tired of their conversation and had started up their snowball fight again. 

“Yep. I’m 320 years old, and that’s young by spirit standards.”

“Really?” Danny said, suppressing a pang of fear.  _ 300 years?  _ Twenty-five years had felt like torture. He wasn’t sure if he would survive 300. Shoving those thoughts down, he said “Well, you don’t look a day over 290.”

Jack seemed surprised once more by Danny’s response, before giving a rueful grin.

“I like you.” He said, jumping down from the lamp post, accompanied by a flurry of snow. “But I don’t get you. You clearly didn’t believe in any of the Guardians, yet you seem to accept their existence without any resistance. You assumed I was a ghost, even when there were plenty of other explanations. Nothing I tell you seems to surprise you.”

Danny fidgeted. “I’ve seen a lot of weird things. You are hardly the strangest.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. 

“An immortal teen that can create snow is not the strangest thing you’ve ever seen?”

Danny will never understand why he said what did next. Maybe it was because talking with Jack reminded him of his friends. Maybe Jack’s condescension annoyed the heck out of him and he wanted to turn it right back on him. Or maybe, he was just tired and lonely and desperate for someone who could understand. 

Whatever the reason, the next words out of Danny’s mouth were: “Considering I am an immortal teen that can create snow, not really, no.”

There was a stunned silence for a moment before Danny clapped a hand over his mouth, eyes wide. Jack seemed just as shocked before a huge grin broke out over his face.

“Really? That’s amazing! Please, please tell me you are not joking. That would be like the coolest thing ever!”

Danny wasn’t sure why Jack was so excited, but it made him feel a little better. There was just something about Jack that put him at ease. 

“I could show you…” Danny was cut off by Jack’s cheer. Taking that as an affirmative, Danny took a deep breath.

“Just, don’t freak out okay?”

At Jack’s affirmative nod, Danny searched out his ghost core. It had been a long time since he had transformed, but it was still as easy as ever. With a flash of light, he became Phantom. 

The jumpsuit was long gone. It had disappeared as soon as he left Amity Park. Danny figured it was probably because he didn’t see himself as a hero anymore. Still. Phantom was just as spectral as ever, even if he was just wearing jeans and a thin jacket.

Danny didn’t think it was possible, but Jack’s grin got even bigger. “You’re Phantom!”

Danny staggered back a step. “You know who am I?”

“Of course!” Jack seemed to be doing some kind of happy dance. “Us spirits keep an eye on the ghosts, you know, make sure they keep out of trouble. The whole spirit world freaked out when there was that breach in Amity. We had no clue how we were going to get the ghosts under control, but then you showed up and totally took care of the problem! It was awesome! Then you just disappeared and that new girl Phantom took over. I can’t believe I’m actually meeting you! We totally need to hang out. This is the best day of my life!”

Danny couldn’t help but laugh at Jack’s antics. His feet lifted off the ground without him really noticing. Once Jack had finally calmed down, he turned back to Danny.

“Where have been all this time? Why did you leave Amity Park?”

Danny’s smile slipped away and his feet settled back on the ground. Jack noticed his change of attitude and frowned. “Danny?”

Danny pulled up a shaky smile.

“I’ll give you a hint. The fact that I still look fourteen has something to do with it.”

Jack’s frown got more pronounced. “You’ve got friends, don’t you. In Amity. Human ones.”

Danny swallowed. 

“I did.”

Silence reigned between the two boys for a moment.

“How long?”

“W-What?” Danny was unnerved by how Jack was looking at him. There was an emotion in Jack’s eyes that he simply couldn’t place.

“How long have you been alone?”

Danny shuddered. He could tell that Jack noticed by the concern on his face.

“Twenty five years?” Danny said, his voice uncertain despite the fact that he knew very well how long it had been.

As soon as he said it, Danny finally placed the emotion in Jack’s eyes. It was empathy. Danny could see years of pain and sorrow in Jack’s eyes. He could see that Jack knew exactly what it felt like to be alone.

Jack smiled sadly at Danny. He could obviously tell what Danny was thinking. 

“Well.” Jack said, a new glint of determination joining the mess of emotions in his eye. “You're not going to be alone anymore.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm. So this came out a little more angsty than I meant it to, but whatevs. Still some fluff, so that’s cool. 
> 
> Um. So. I acknowledge that some things in previous chapters may imply that Danny and Jack are a couple. This is not my intention. They do love it each other, but not romantically. There is a reason this is called friends and family. If it ever seems like they are flirting, odds are they are being sarcastic. If you really, really want to see them as a couple, I can’t stop you, but that is not how I see it. 
> 
> That being said, this happens pretty soon after Danny met the Guardians, and is in fact, only the second time Danny has ever met Bunny. Clearly nothing could go wrong with that! XD

Bunny smiled as he studied the egg he was working on. It was a real beauty, one of his best efforts, if he said so himself. He was almost done. A couple more lines, and the design would be perfect.

His brow furrowed in concentration. This last part was extremely delicate. Carefully, he began to paint the egg.

_ Careful.... Careful…. Almost done…. _

“BUNNY!”

Bunny jerked with surprise, causing the paintbrush to move erratically. He growled, dropping the ruined egg. There was only one person who would sneak up on him like that. He turned round, ready to yell, only to stop short.

“Danny?”

Danny grinned impishly. He was floating on his back, head hanging upside down so he could see Bunny. He waved at the shocked Pooka before flopping around to lie on his stomach.

“Nice place you got here. Ever since I started hanging out with Jack, I’ve never really seen spring, not that I spent a whole lot of time there in the first place. Still, it’s nice. I’ve missed it.”

Getting over his surprise, Bunny began to scowl again. “What are you doing here?”

“Jack sent me.” Danny seemed completely unaffected by Bunny’s fierce glare. He wandered over to a nearby plant and began poking it with his toe. “He planned on bothering you today, but then this huge storm came up in Alaska, so he sent me in his place. He’ll be here as soon as he can.”

“I don’t want him here!” Bunny was furious. Not only did he finally have confirmation that Jack planned out how he would torment him, but now the brat was delegating the task!

“That’s kinda the point, Kangaroo.” Danny had abandoned the plant in favor of teasing one of the egg golems. He flew around its head, staying just out of its line of sight, giggling the entire time. 

“Not you too. And cut it out! Seriously, do your feet ever touch the ground?”

Danny smirked over his shoulder. “Gravity is for losers. And cheer up! This is a good thing. You’re always going on about responsibility. Jack is just trying to be responsible by keeping his appointments, even if he can’t be there himself.”

“Jack sending you to bother me is not my definition of responsibility.” Bunny rubbed his head, feeling a headache coming on. “How did you even get in here? The defenses should have kept you out.”

Danny’s grin became mischievous. “I’m very sneaky.” He suddenly disappeared, causing Bunny to cry out in shock. He looked around frantically, searching for the white haired teen, when suddenly-

“Boo.”

Bunny let out a (very manly) shriek, spinning around to see Danny laughing hysterically.

Something suddenly clicked in Bunny’s head.

“You’re a ghost! I don’t believe it. Jack went and befriended a ghost. That is just like him.”

Danny snickered. “Come on, don’t be like that. I’m not a normal ghost. I’m a cool one. Ice cold, you could say.”

Bunny stared at Danny blankly. “Was… was that a pun? Because you can make ice?”

“Yep!” Danny chirped. “But in all seriousness, I am pretty unusual as far as ghosts go.”

Bunny frowned. Something about Danny was weirdly familiar. The first time he had met him, he had been distracted by his similarities to Jack, but now that he was seeing Danny by himself, he was able to put more thought into where he had seen him before. 

Suddenly, it hit him. 

“Phantom!”

Danny raised an eyebrow. “Um… yes?”

Bunny flushed. Luckily, Danny couldn’t see it under his fur. “No, I mean… you. You’re Phantom.”

Danny’s eyes widened comically. 

“What! No way. I had no idea. Thanks for telling me. It means a lot.” Danny threw himself around Bunny’s waist, mock sobbing.

“Aw, shove off, you bloody show pony.” Bunny shoved Danny’s giggling form away. “What happened to you, anyway? You used to be so… responsible. Then you just abandon your town to hang out with the biggest troublemaker I’ve ever met? Honestly, it’s kind of disappointing. I thought your existence meant that young spirits could be counted on, but apparently not. I mean, you gave up after only three years! What, you couldn’t handle having a full-time job?”

If Bunny had looked at Danny even once during this rant, he might have stopped before going too far. But he didn’t. He didn’t see Danny’s smile vanish. He didn’t see as his glow lessened until he looked almost human. He didn’t see when Danny dropped to the ground, first to his feet, and then to his knees. And he certainly didn’t see when tears began to stream down Danny’s face.

Instead of looking at, or even attempting to talk to Danny, he just kept venting his frustrations.

“I mean seriously. Haven’t you ever heard of the saying, ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going?’ It may take a little bit of sacrifice, but it’s worth it in the end. Not that a brat like you could ever understand that-”

“SHUT UP!”

  
Bunny finally looked at Danny, only to be shocked by the look of pure anguish on his face. It was so intense that Bunny actually took a step back.

“You have no idea what sacrifice or responsibility is! Leaving Amity was the most difficult thing I have ever done, and every day I have to live with the fact that I left it undefended. That guilt is eating me up inside. It is destroying me, but I can’t go back! I can’t. I just… I can’t… I don’t…”   


Danny crumpled in on himself. He was shaking and tears continued to pour down his face. He looked at Bunny desperately, as if asking for help. When Bunny just stared back, he let out a quiet whine before vanishing. 

Silence reigned in the Warren, until it was broken by an icy voice.

“How.  _ Dare.  _ You.”

Bunny shuddered as the temperature in the Warren plummeted. He turned slowly to see Jack standing behind him, glaring. Looking at Jack, Bunny was legitimately scared for his life. 

“You know what your problem is, Bunnymund?” Jack spat Bunny’s name as if it was the vilest poison. “You assume that your point of view is the only one that matters, or is correct. You form opinions about people based on extremely limited information, and then you refuse to back down, or ever admit when you’re wrong. You did it to me, and it  _ hurt.  _ It hurt more than you could possibly understand. But at least I could take it.”

Here Jack leaned forward, looking more dangerous than Bunny had ever seen him. “But Danny, he can’t. That kid has been through a lot, and he does not need the kind of poison that you can spew in his life. So from now on, you stay away from him.”

Suddenly, all the anger drained from Jack. He ran a hand through his hair, looking incredibly disappointed.

“You know, I thought I could trust you with Danny. I thought maybe you had learned. But I guess not.” He sighed, exhaustion weighing down his limbs as he looked at Bunny with sad eyes. “You wanna talk about responsibility, Aster? Try taking some for your own actions.”

And with that, Jack flew off, leaving Bunny alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bunny approached the lake carefully. It had been a few days since his… argument with Jack, and he was not exactly eager to see him again. But, despite what Jack may think, Bunny was capable of admitting when he was wrong, and he was determined to fix his mistake. 

Taking a deep breath, Bunny left the woods and entered the clear area around Jack’s lake. His gaze was immediately drawn to the two boys sitting at the edge of the pond. One was clearly Jack, while the other… 

Bunny frowned. What was Jack doing hanging out with some random black haired kid? And where was Danny? Bunny had got the impression that the two were basically inseparable.

It was then that Jack seemed to notice that they were no longer alone. He jumped to his feet, placing himself between Bunny and the boy.

“What are you doing here?” he snarled. Everything in his posture screamed defensive anger. He seemed likely to attack at any moment. Bunny wisely decided not to get any closer.

“Look Jack, I just want to apologize. I’ve thought a lot about what you said, and-”

“What makes you think we want your apology?” Jack interrupted, not looking the least bit mollified. 

Bunny, expecting this response, was about to launch into his prepared explanation, when he suddenly stopped short.

“We?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Of course you didn’t know. Couldn’t be bothered to actually learn anything about a new spirit, could you?”

This did not help Bunny’s confusion at all. He was about to protest when the other boy by the lake stood up and turned to look at Bunny, revealing-

“Danny?”

Danny smirked a little, but his heart didn’t seem in it. “I did tell you I was a little unusual when it comes to ghosts.”

Bunny pulled himself together, setting the revelation aside for later. He didn’t really understand how Danny could change his appearance so drastically, or what the ramifications were, but it didn’t matter right now. All that mattered was fixing his mistake. 

“Look Danny, I’m sorry. I was mad, and I didn’t really mean what I said. I have a bad habit of talking before I think, and it hurt you. It wasn’t my intention, but I did. And I’m sorry.”

Danny and Jack looked severely unimpressed with Bunny’s apology. He didn’t blame them. It was a terrible attempt. 

Luckily, he had come prepared. 

“Of course, I know it’s easy to just say sorry, and that it doesn’t mean much by itself, so I made you something. To show that I’m serious.”

Bunny held out a small box he had been holding. He’d said his bit, now he could only hope that it would be enough.

Danny and Jack shared uncertain look, before Danny stepped forward. He took the box gingerly from Bunny, before scampering back to Jack. He opened the box, and pulled out a beautiful egg. 

Danny’s eyes widened as he looked at the egg. The design was mostly abstract, a mix of blues, greens, and black, yet one could almost make out a snowflake pattern at times. It was perfect. 

Bunny shuffled uncomfortably. 

“I uh… didn’t know much about you, but I figured you liked the color green and I knew you liked snow what with hanging out with Jack and all so… I did my best.”

Danny looked at Bunny, a grin slowly growing on his face. “It’s so cool! I love it. Is it really for me?” At Bunny’s nod, Danny whooped. In a sudden flash of light, he was Phantom again, taking off into the sky and doing a series of loops and tricks.

Bunny walked up to Jack, who was watching Danny with a soft smile. They stood in silence for a moment, before Jack spoke.

“Do you know why we laugh and smile and play pranks?”

Bunny glanced at Jack. His expression was distant, and contemplative. Afraid of breaking Jack out of his trance, Bunny merely shook his head.

“It’s because all we want to do is cry. It’s because we’re lonely, and scared, and every time we open our mouths we just want to scream at the world for being so unfair. But we can’t. So we smile and laugh and hope that if we pretend hard enough, we may actually become happy.”

Jack finally looked at Bunny. His features hardened.

“I am going to forgive you, and give you a second chance with Danny, only because you have put a real smile on his face. But if you mess up again, I will personally ensure that your paint river never thaws again, you hear me?”

Bunny gulped, and nodded hurriedly. Jack grinned before turning to Danny who had finished his acrobatics and come back down to their level.

He grabbed Jack’s arm and started tugging.

“Come on! Let’s go put it in the den!”

Jack laughed, before taking off, Danny following closely behind. Bunny was once again left alone, but at least this time he wasn’t actively hoping for the earth to swallow him up whole.

Bunny gave a rueful grin, before tapping the ground, opening up a tunnel to take him home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_ Four months later… _

“DANNY!”

Danny cackled as he flew away, making sure not to get too far ahead of Bunny. Bunny raced after him, throwing a boomerang to try and slow him down. To his surprise, Danny simply went intangible, allowing the weapon to go through him. Before Bunny could recover, Danny had formed a green ball in his hand, which he proceeded to throw at Bunny.

Bunny yelped as the ball exploded, covering him in green goo. He stared at himself in horror. He could already tell that getting the stuff out of his fur would be torture. He tried to wipe it off, while Danny laughed hysterically.

A couple of months ago, Bunny would have blown his top. Now he just grumbled as he conceded defeat.

Bunny had been trying hard to be better these last few months. After his and Jack’s ‘talks,’ he had begun to see what he meant. Bunny had tried hard to actually get to know Danny, and he liked to think that he was starting to be able to tell when Danny was legitimately happy, and when he was just pretending. Distressingly, the fake smiles were much more common than the real ones. 

So Bunny held his temper, and instead of cutting remarks, he stuck with gentle teasing, emphasis on gentle. He hadn’t forgotten Jack’s blow-up the month before they met Danny. He still wasn’t sure what exactly he had said that was so bad, but he didn’t want something like that to happen again. 

All his effort had payed off. Danny had completely forgiven him for the incident, and loved hanging out in the Warren. Bunny couldn’t find it in him to ever kick him out. The kid was just so enthusiastic about everything, that simply having him around made the Warren seem brighter.

Even his relationship with Jack had improved. Bunny had never really noticed the underlying tension between the two of them, but now that it was gone, he couldn’t understand how he had ever lived with it. Bunny was slightly ashamed to realize that he had never apologized to Jack for his behavior that Easter so long ago. That, plus his slightly aggressive and standoffish behavior had kept Jack and Bunny from ever becoming close friends. Nowadays, Jack and Bunny could actually get through a whole conversation without insulting each other once. 

That didn’t stop him from wanting to strangle Jack and Danny at times, such as right now. And it was difficult at times for him to control his temper.  But, as Bunny saw Danny smile a real smile, he couldn't help but think that he would spend the rest of his life covered in goo, if only the kid would keep on smiling like that.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright everyone, buckle up and get ready to CRY because this is a sad one. And it doesn’t really end all that well. Like, there is comfort, but the problem itself is not really solved, so. Yeah. Depressing.

Jack grinned as he flew through the air. He felt amazing. It had been a great week, full of snowballs and fun times. The only thing that could have made it better would be if Danny had been there.

Jack’s grin turned less gleeful and more fond at the thought of his friend. They had split up to cover more ground with the kids. Contrary to what Bunny might say, they weren’t attached at the hip, and sometimes they needed a little alone time.

Or rather, Jack did. He loved being seen, but sometimes it got a little… much. He just needed to be able to get away every once and awhile. Danny understood. He never argued when Jack brought up the idea of separating for a while. He just got this understanding look in his eyes before taking off, shouting a time and place for meeting up over his shoulder. 

Jack let out a soft laugh. He would be tempted to think that Danny was too good for him if he didn’t know for a fact that Danny needed him just as much as he needed Danny. They made a great team. The fact that Danny could be seen by everyone was a real asset. He was great at getting kids to believe in Jack, and as such his believer base had skyrocketed since meeting him. Then there were the other situations where being able to interact with humans was useful…

Jack’s smile faded. For a moment, the sounds of crying and screaming filled his ears. Terrified faces of children flashed before his eyes before he shook his head sharply, banishing the memories. 

_ No bad thoughts,  _ he thought sternly.  _ That isn’t a problem anymore. _

Shaking off his momentary gloom, Jack sped off again. He was late to the meeting, but he wasn’t worried. He was almost always late. Danny would gripe about it for a while, but within a month it would be forgotten. Until next time, that is.

Spotting Danny, Jack flew over to him, landing a couple of feet away.

“Heya, Casper!”

Jack frowned when there was no response from Danny. That wasn’t like him. Was he really that mad about Jack being late?

“Look, I’m sorry I’m late, but you should really expect it… by… Danny?”

As Jack approached Danny, he realized that something was wrong. Danny was shaking, and tears ran down his face. Jack crouched down in front of him, but Danny stared straight through him. He didn’t seem to realize that Jack was there.

“Danny?” Jack was near frantic now. When Danny once again failed to respond, panic shot through Jack. Suddenly, he wasn’t with Danny. He was with hundreds of different children, all of them scared and alone, and he couldn’t help them because they couldn’t see or touch him and they were _ dying _ and he couldn’t help because he was useless and wrong and  _ noonecouldseehimand- _

Jack took a deep breath. That was not happening. He was with Danny. He was with Danny, and Danny needed help. He could do that. He could help Danny.

Leaning forward, Jack put a shaking hand on Danny’s shoulder. For a terrifying moment, he thought it would go straight through, but then he made contact, and the rush of relief made him feel lightheaded for a moment. 

The touch knocked Danny out of his shock. He blinked, and focused on Jack for the first time.

“Danny? What’s wrong?”

Danny’s face was blank. He stared at Jack for a long moment before opening his mouth.

“My mom is dead.”

Danny wiped at his eyes before continuing.

“She’s been dead for two years now. I didn’t even know. I-” 

Danny’s next words were cut off by a sob, and he hunched over. Jack didn’t say anything. He simply gathered Danny in his arms and held him as he cried.

Danny finally stopped crying, though he remained curled up against Jack’s side. Jack waited, knowing Danny would speak eventually.

He was not disappointed.

“They’re both gone now. My parents I mean. Does that make me an orphan? Can a 62 year old even be considered an orphan? I feel like one.”

Jack hugged Danny closer.

“Nah. You got me. And North and Tooth and Sandy. Even Bunny, I guess. Though I’m not sure what good he would do.”

Danny let out a strangled laugh, before falling silent once more. Jack would have counted it as a victory, but he knew Danny well enough to know when he was faking. Eventually, Danny broke the silence again.

“Jazz is still alive. She became a great psychologist. She specialized in troubled teens, es- especially those that, that... ran away.”

Danny had to take a moment to collect himself before continuing.

“Tucker started his own tech company. Most modern tech is based off of his designs. The day he became richer than Vlad ever was had to have been the best day of my life. He called his company Phantom Tech.”

Danny was shaking harder now. Jack rubbed his back, making comforting noises. He knew that Danny needed to do this. Jack had heard these names before, but he knew very little about Danny’s friends and family. He hardly ever talked about them. This was the most Jack had ever learned about any of them. Unfortunately, he knew the hardest was yet to come.

“Sam…” Danny’s voice broke. “She was an incredibly successful politician. She made a huge difference for so many people. She never married, but she adopted a boy. She named him Danny.”

Jack was afraid Danny was going to lose it again at this point, but instead he went still. He took a shuddering breath, before smiling up at Jack . Jack was surprised to see that the smile was genuine, despite the tears in his eyes. 

“And then there’s Dani.” Danny gave a shaky laugh, shaking his head. “I am so,  _ so  _ proud of her. She has done such a good job at protecting Amity. We called each other cousins, but I always saw her as a kind of daughter. Better for her to be my child than Vlad’s.”

Danny’s smile faded. “But Val… she’s been dead for forty years. I should have been there. I should have protected her. If I had been there, she would still be alive.”

“You can’t know that.” Jack said quietly, stroking Danny’s hair. He knew all about feeling guilt for something you couldn’t control. He didn’t want Danny to have that same feeling.

Danny shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. I should have been there. I should have protected all of them. All of Amity. They needed me, and I left. I just left. I didn’t leave a note or anything. They have no idea what happened to me! They probably think I’m dead.”

Danny buried his head in his knees. Jack felt like his heart was breaking. They didn’t talk about the past very often. Jack knew that he himself didn’t want to talk about the years he was alone, so he had never pushed Danny to talk about his past. He was beginning to feel like that was a mistake. 

“I don’t know if mom and dad knew I was Phantom. I think the others probably would have told them eventually, but I just don’t know. And now, it’s too late. I’ll never be able to tell them.”

Danny’s voice dropped down to a whisper. “Sometimes, I wish I couldn’t remember them.”

“No!” Jack grabbed Danny by the shoulders, forcing Danny to look him in the eye. “Don’t you ever say that. I lived 300 years without remembering my family, and it was torture.”

Jack let go, and turned away from Danny. He curled in on himself, refusing to meet Danny’s eyes. He voice was distant when he began to speak again.

“I- I have a couple of memories from the Tooth Box, but… they’re not much. They are just happy memories from childhood, more emotion than detail. I know that my sister was the most important thing in the world to me but…”

Jack cursed internally as he felt tears well up in his eyes. This was not supposed to be about him! But now that he had started, he couldn’t stop. He looked back at Danny.

“I can’t even remember her name. And I probably never will. I would give anything to know what happened to her, to know that she lived a long and happy life, to know…”

Jack trailed off. Danny was staring at him with wide eyes. Jack smiled, the mask slipping on easily with practice. He knelt in front of Danny, holding his gaze. 

“I know this hurts. My family was long gone by the time I remembered them. I don’t know what I would have done if they had still been alive. But I do know that I cling tightly to the memories that I do have, and I wish that I had more. Please, don’t throw away your memories of them. It will be all you have when they are gone.”

Danny’s face crumpled. He flung himself into Jack’s arms, sobbing anew. Jack whispered to him, telling him that he would never be alone. Not as long as Jack was around.

“Do you think I should go see them?”

Danny’s sudden question startled Jack. His first instinct was yes. He longed to see his family one more time, and he didn’t want Danny to have that regret. 

But as he thought about it, his opinion changed. Slowly, he shook his head.

“You left for a reason, Danny. To go back, especially now, would only do harm.”

Danny struggled out of his arms, standing up to pace.

“That’s what I’ve been telling myself for 45 years! And now my parents are dead, and I’m not sure it was the right thing to do anymore! I should have at least explained myself. I shouldn’t have left them with nothing. What if- what if they are still looking for me? What if they still think I’m coming back?”

“That’s why you can’t go back.” Jack stood up as well, but made no move to stop Danny’s pacing. He merely watched. “They need to move on. They probably have by now. If you come back, still looking 14, all it will do is transport them back to how they felt when you first left. They have had 45 years to get used to the fact that you are gone. You don’t want to undo that.”

Danny whined, pacing faster. “What, so I never see them again? I just stay here forever? That’s your answer?”

Jack sighed.

“What will happen if you go back now? It won’t be the same. They’re adults, and you’re still 14 for all intents and purposes. It will be awkward and difficult, and the whole time you will know that they will just die. You might have twenty years with them, but then they’ll be gone. And it will hurt so much more than if you stayed away.”

“How would you know?” Danny snapped. He was angry and hurting and he didn’t know what to do. Jack just looked at him sadly.

“Danny, do you have any idea how many people I have watched die? I learned pretty quickly to distance myself, or…” 

Jack’s eyes darkened. He had a whole world of bad memories buried in his head, and this conversation was bringing them all to the front of his mind. Danny seemed to realize that, because he grabbed Jack’s hand. Jack still started at unexpected contact, even after 40 years, and the movement succeeded at bringing his attention back to the present.

Looking at Danny’s concerned face, he smiled reassuringly. Danny didn’t look quite convinced, but he let it go. This conversation had exhausted both of them. They stood apart, both lost in their own thoughts. 

“I won’t go back.” 

Jack made a slight noise at Danny’s voice. Danny seemed to take it as an affirmative and lapsed back into silence. 

“Do you want to go bother Bunny? We haven’t been to the Warren in weeks now. It could use some redecorating.”

Danny smirked at Jack’s question. It was a shadow of his normal one, but it was there. He nodded very slightly, but it was enough for Jack. They both took off, and headed to the nearest entrance to the Warren.

“I would have gone with you.”

Danny glanced at Jack, a little surprised by his sudden words. Seeing the look, Jack clarified.

“If you had decided to go back. I would have gone with you.”

Danny smiled. “I know.”

And even though nothing had really been solved, somehow they both felt better.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really didn't like this chapter when I first wrote it. Rereading it, it isn't as bad as I thought, but it still isn't my best work. Hopefully you guys still like it.
> 
> This takes place five years after Danny first met the Guardians.

Jack waved as the kids ran home. Watching the kids leave at night was still hard, but it was getting easier. It helped that he wasn’t left alone at night anymore. He had Danny. 

Jack turned just in time to see Danny flop down into a snow drift. His eyes closed as he let out a sigh, stretching as if he was on a luxurious bed before relaxing completely. Jack leaned against his staff, eyeing Danny with an amused smile. 

“The kids wear you out?”

Danny opened one eye, glaring at Jack.

“It doesn’t make any sense. I am literally made of a substance that is basically never-ending energy, and yet those kids can keep going long after I want to drop. It isn’t fair.”

Jack laughed. “Yeah, kids are something else. They’ve got a spark that no one else has. Why do you think us Guardians protect them?”

Danny mumbled something that was most likely insulting under his breath, before heaving himself up- if by heaving, one meant floating gracefully. Danny wasn’t really tired, at least not in the traditional sense. He was a little rundown, but that was simply because he and Jack had been forced to fend off an attack by a couple of summer spirits before coming to play with the kids. Nothing drained his energy faster than a good fight. 

Danny sighed as he shook out his arms. When he left Amity Park, the one upside he could see was that he wouldn’t have to fight anymore. That idea had pretty much gone up in smoke the minute he met Jack. Spirits seemed to love to attack him, and he refused to tell the other Guardians about it. Jack was incredibly independent and he didn’t want to be ‘babied’ as he put it. 

Danny honestly didn’t mind the fights. He was strong, and he wouldn’t give up his friendship with Jack for anything. Still, it was a little disheartening to think that he would be fighting for the rest of eternity. 

Jack gave Danny a long look. He must have been aware of his thoughts, because he suddenly grinned.

“Change of plans! You and I could do with some alone time.”

Danny looked at Jack in shock. The original plan had been to head over to the opposite side of the globe and continue spreading fun among kids. Danny had never seen Jack give up time with the children in all the time he had known him. The fact that he was offering to do so now was… strange to say the least.

“Are you sure? I mean, we were going to hang with the kids, and I know how much that means to you.”

Jack nodded, throwing an arm around Danny’s shoulders.

“Of course I’m sure. We could use a guys night out. It’s been ages since we last had one.”

As Danny realized that Jack was serious, he began to grin. Danny and Jack had had a few ‘guys night outs’ before, and they usually ended with a spirit out for their heads because of some prank they had pulled in a moment of poor decision-making. Despite the trouble they inevitably caused, they were undeniably fun, typical of an outing with Jack Frost. 

“What exactly did you have in mind?” Danny asked, mischief dancing in his eyes. Jack’s own smile became a little wicked in response.

“I heard there was a carnival in town. I figured we could go cause some trouble over there.”

“Sounds like fun.” Danny said, already imagining what they could get up to in that kind of an environment. “You do know that North is going to kill us. We’re supposed to be good examples.”

Jack waved his free hand, clearly unconcerned. “I’ve been on the naughty list for a straight 350 years. I am not about to give that up now, just because I have a fancy title.”

“If you’re sure,” Danny laughed as he shoved Jack’s arm off of him. “But you’re taking the blame when North shows up in a rage over our exploits.”

“Gladly.” Jack was already in the air, waiting for Danny to join him. “I’m not afraid of North.”

“That’s not what it looked like when you asked me to hide you after you destroyed his kitchen that one time!”

Jack gaped for a second, giving Danny the chance he needed to zoom past him, cackling maniacally.

“Hey!” Jack yelled, chasing after Danny, who was already a speck in the distance. “Come back here! You don’t even know where we’re going!” 

He chased after Danny, too excited about the evening to really be upset at Danny’s teasing. Jack smiled to himself, even as he shouted insults at his younger friend. Tonight was going to be epic.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two boys collapsed in a pile, laughing hysterically. The night had indeed been epic, at least from their point of view. They had had a great time. They began with the various games. Danny would approach in his human form, while Jack hovered above, waiting to make sure that Danny won. Eventually, the game vendors drove them off. They couldn’t prove that Danny was cheating, but they knew something was up.

Jack and Danny didn’t mind. After distributing their winnings to various children, they had continued onto the rides. They snuck onto any that weren’t completely full, which was most of them. Not having to wait in line was great. It may have been a little sketchy, as they were technically cutting, but so far they hadn’t done anything too bad. In fact, halfway through the evening, they congratulated each other on how good they were being, all things considered.

That, of course, was when everything went wrong. The carnival had a petting zoo, and Jack had somehow gotten it into his head that the animals needed to be freed. Danny had argued against the idea for about three seconds before giving in. He would never admit it, but seeing animals in cages reminded him of one of his own biggest fear- being caught and locked up by some scientist. Besides, it wasn’t as if there were any dangerous animals in the petting zoo. Releasing them would do no harm. 

It didn’t exactly turn out that way.

Releasing the animals was easy. With both Danny and Jack being invisible, all they had to do was remove the fence. Unfortunately, they hadn’t really thought beyond that point. Once free, the animals had gone crazy. The overwhelming noise and smell of the carnival caused them to go wild, running all over the place, attacking food stands, knocking over displays, and generally causing havoc.

Once Danny and Jack had gotten over their shock, they had gone into damage control, something they had a lot of experience with. They kept kids from being trampled and made sure that they stayed with their parents. With the children safe, they were able to appreciate the chaos they had caused. There was something undeniably funny about a middle aged man screaming as he was chased by a tiny lamb. 

They would have stayed a bit longer to revel, but that was when North turned up. Apparently, they had caused such a huge mess, North had decided they needed to be yelled at right that very moment. Danny and Jack had promptly fled, not in the mood to be lectured. North almost caught them, but they were saved at the last moment when a nacho food stand was knocked over onto North. The last they saw of North before fleeing was three goats licking the melted cheese off of him as he bellowed.

That image was why they were laughing so hard as they landed by Jack’s lake. The boys leaned against each other as they shook with laughter. Their laughter gradually petered out, til they were left with a companionable silence.

Jack watched Danny carefully. He had been down since his mom died. It wasn’t obvious to anyone who didn’t know him well, but Danny was struggling. Jack had hoped that spending some quality time with him would help snap him out of it, but it looked like it hadn’t worked.

Jack huffed mentally. Right. Cause getting in trouble was ‘quality time.’ He felt like an idiot. In the past, he and Danny had basically been prank partners. Sure, they knew each other better than anyone else in the entire world, and they comforted each other when it was needed, but they definitely avoided serious talk unless they could help it. Jack’s version of cheering someone up had always been to play a joke, but that wasn’t good enough anymore. He needed to try harder.

He let his gaze move over clearing, focusing on the lake. Jack smiled.  _ Perfect. _

He nudged Danny with his shoulder.

“Hey. The night’s not over yet. How about we ice skate for a while?” 

Danny looked uncharacteristically hesitant. He looked at the lake nervously, before looking away. 

“I don’t know… I’m kinda tired.”

“I thought we established that was impossible.” Danny didn’t react to Jack’s joke. He frowned. “What’s wrong? You’re not scared are you? You know that with me on the ice, there is no way to break through. Even if you somehow managed it, you could just turn intangible and fly out. Not that you could drown in the first place, seeing as you don’t need to breathe.”

Jack knew he was rambling, but he couldn’t help it. It came from the days when he would talk to himself, never expecting an answer. He stopped when Danny cleared his throat.

“Uh no, I’m not scared. I just… don’t know… how to skate.”

Danny winced as he spoke, looking away from Jack. Jack had apparently entered a state of shock. He stared at Danny, completely confounded, before he began to yell.

“WHAT! How is that even possible? I’ve known you for 25 years, and you don’t know how to ice skate?”

Jack leapt to his feet and began to pace. He shook his head back and forth, slowly at first, before speeding up. 

“No. No I refuse to accept that. We’ve ice skated before. With the kids! You were there!”

Danny crossed his arms, still avoiding Jack’s gaze. “I always floated above the ice. I never actually slid across it.”

Jack took a moment to process this before smiling. Danny jerked slightly, clearly not expecting that response.

“It’s fine. I’ll just teach you! Come on.”

Jack grabbed Danny and pulled him off the ground, dragging him toward the lake. Danny pulled back, yanking his arm free from Jack’s grip. Jack turned back to Danny, confused. Danny hovered in the air, looking as though he may bolt at any moment. 

“That’s alright.” Danny fidgeted with the edge of his sweatshirt. “You don’t have to do that.”

Jack frowned. “I  _ want  _ to. Nothing would make me happier than to teach you how to ice skate.” He crept carefully toward Danny, not wanting to scare him off.

Danny backed away as Jack approached, not lengthening the distance between them, but not shortening it either. Jack stopped his advance, slightly frustrated.

As he finally caught Danny’s eyes, his frustration faded away. Danny was clearly very uncomfortable, but Jack could not for the life of him figure out why.

“Danny, what’s wrong? Why are you so against this? I thought you liked…”

Danny must have heard the hurt in Jack’s voice, because he suddenly closed the space between, frantically apologizing.

“No, no, I do. I love winter and ice, and I would love to know how to ice skate, I just…”

Danny trailed off, staring at the lake with blank eyes. He didn’t look away as he spoke.

“You died. You died while ice skating. You… you were with your sister. You wanted to teach her how to ice skate because you loved it, even while you were alive. But you died. You died and she screamed and you never got to skate with her.”

Jack felt as if he had been punched in the stomach. He had never associated his death with ice skating. He knew that he had died by drowning, but he was never scared when he was on ice. He had no idea that Danny associated his death with the activity. 

But… that wasn’t quite right. Danny wasn’t scared about his death. He was upset about his sister specifically. But why…

Oh. Jack’s eyes widened.  _ I told Danny that I wanted to teach my sister how to ice skate, but I died before I got the chance. He doesn’t want to replace her. _

Jack walked up to Danny, putting a hand on his shoulder. Danny looked up at him, looking incredibly sad.

Jack wrapped his arms around Danny and hugged him. Danny stiffened at first, but then melted into the hug. Jack wasn’t sure how long they stood there before he pulled back, smiling at Danny.

“You’re right. I never got to teach my sister how to ice skate. So let me teach you. My sister is gone, but you’re here. What kind of big brother would I be if I didn’t make sure my little bro could skate?”

Danny’s face broke into a blinding smile, the first real one Jack had seen since Danny had become an orphan. Jack grinned in return, before pulling a now unresisting Danny onto the ice.

Danny was a natural skater. It helped that he had complete control over his center of gravity. Within an hour, Danny was gliding over the ice as if he had been doing it his entire life. Danny and Jack began to compete, doing more and more outlandish stunts. They skated all night, not stopping when the children woke up and joined them. 

Jack had never been happier. He was skating on the ice with the person he considered a younger sibling. A dream that had been denied him more than 300 years ago was finally coming true. But that wasn’t the real reason he was happy. The real reason was that Danny seemed truly happy again for the first time in a long time. 

They finally stopped skating when the kids went home for lunch. The boys laughed as they recounted some of the more flashy fails of the kids, and praised each other for their particularly good tricks. They were in high spirits.

Danny suddenly stopped laughing and gave Jack a strange look. 

“What?”

Danny shook his head. “No, it’s just… did you really mean what you said? About being my big brother?”

Danny looked embarrassed to be asking the question, but Jack put an end to that. He grabbed Danny and forced him to look into his eyes.

“I know I’ve told you this before, and I will tell you again and again until you believe me. You will never be alone again. You may be an annoying, aggravating, good for nothing troublemaker, but you’re  _ my _ annoying, aggravating, good for nothing trouble maker. And I look after what’s mine. Even if it is just to teach you how to ice skate.”

Danny grinned. “Who knew you could be so sincere?”

“Don’t push it.” Jack fake growled, pushing Danny over. Danny squawked in protest, and they fell back into their usual banter. But they both knew that something was different. They never discussed it. Both Jack and Danny had intimacy issues and had no desire to talk about their relationship. But after that day, whenever either of them were upset, the two boys could be found ice skating. For all that Jack had always wanted someone to talk to, sometimes, no words were needed. 


	6. Chapter 6

Danny flipped in midair, dodging a blast of fire. He shot back with an ecto beam, knocking the summer spirit out of the air. He had no time to celebrate his victory as he was immediately forced to form a shield, blocking yet another blast of fire. 

Danny grit his teeth. Heat didn’t necessarily  _ bother _ him, but he did not enjoy it. Unfortunately, it was summer spirits who attacked them more than any other type of spirit. It was extremely aggravating.

Jack seemed just as annoyed. He lashed out with his staff, sending out a wide stream of ice that gave him some breathing room from the three summer spirits ganging up on him. He was panting slightly, his face bright red, though that had more to do with anger than with physical exertion.

“Why do you guys always do this? Neither of us have ever bothered you! I may be a prankster, but not even I’m dumb enough to mess with the literal opposite season.”

Danny snickered. “Don’t bother. Summer spirits are too hot-headed to reason with.” He focused, before pushing his shield out, smashing it into the spirits around him, scattering them. 

Jack did a double take, almost getting hit by a stream of boiling water. “Was that a pun? In the middle of a fight?”

Danny shrugged, turning intangible. He winced as the fire passed through him. It felt like his insides were being scorched.  _ Not doing that again.  _

“That was the way I always fought. Puns relax me. They make it easier to focus. Would you stop that?”

That last one was directed at a particularly nasty sprite. It couldn’t do much damage, but it was small, quick, and liked to pull hair. Danny snatched it out of the air and threw it at another spirit, knocking them both out of the air. 

Free from any immediate threats, Danny took a moment to catch his breath. This fight had been brutal. Normally, it was only three to five spirits that would attack them at a time, but the fights had been getting worse. Right now, there were close to  _ fifteen spirits  _ attacking them. It made no sense. Jack was right when he said that they had never bothered any summer spirits before. They would have to be suicidal. Summer spirits were notoriously bad tempered, and they hated winter spirits. Danny may not technically be a winter spirit, but he was close enough to be wary of the summer spirits. There was no reason for the summer spirits to full out attack them specifically. 

Danny was pulled out of his thoughts when the summer spirits attacked with new vigour. Any spirits that had been knocked out of the fight had rallied and come back for more. For a while, all of his thoughts were consumed with blocking, firing, and general fighting. 

Despite the large number of opponents, Danny wasn’t worried. All he and Jack had to do was hold on long enough and the summer spirits would break and run. They always did. It may be a little more difficult this time, but Danny had a lot of experience fighting, and he was pretty powerful as far as spirits went. The same was true of Jack. There was a reason they were only ever attacked when they were outnumbered. 

So yes, Danny was very confident that he and Jack would come out on top in this fight. At least he was, until a scream split the air. 

Danny spun so quickly his neck cracked. What he saw horrified him. Jack was on the ground, a group of summer spirits around him. One of them was holding Jack’s staff. It was in two pieces. 

Danny felt all the blood rush out of his face. Jack had told him what it felt like to have his staff broken once. Danny had never seen Jack as scared as he had seemed recalling that memory. He had promised Jack it would never happen again. 

For a moment, Danny was frozen. He had promised Jack.  _ He had promised him.  _ The words repeated in his head, keeping him stuck in one spot. He vaguely thought that he might be in shock. It was only when Jack screamed again, as his staff was snapped into even more pieces, that Danny was spurred into action. 

He saw red. No one hurt Jack like that. That staff was an extension of Jack. Part of his soul was contained within it. Jack had told him that breaking the staff hurt him more than anything he had ever experienced. Anyone who dared to mess with the staff would have to deal with the full force of Danny Phantom’s wrath. 

Danny landed behind the group. He had never before managed to duplicate, but he did so now without a moment's hesitation. As soon as the duplicate had turned invisible, he yelled at the summer spirits. 

“Hey! Why don’t you pick on someone who can fight back?”

As one, the summer spirits turned to look at him. With their attention distracted, Danny’s clone was able to grab Jack and faze him through the ground, getting him out of the line of fire.

With Jack safe, Danny focused on the summer spirits. The whole group was facing him now, most seeming amused by his words. One stepped forward, the pieces of Jack’s staff in her hand. Danny squinted at her form, her flaming hair making it difficult to see her face. Despite this, he could tell she was smirking.

“Oh no. Did we upset Frost’s little freak friend? What, are you afraid that if Frost kicks the bucket, no one else will want to hang out with you?”

Danny scowled, resisting the urge to attack then and there. He took a deep breath, before saying, “I will give you one chance. Give me Jack’s staff. Now.”

The whole group laughed. The leader grinned maliciously. “You know what? I don’t think I will.” And with that, she snapped yet another section of Jack’s staff. 

Danny heard Jack’s whimper, filtering through his connection with his clone. He no longer had the strength to scream. 

Danny had had enough. The only reason he had asked was because he was afraid of doing more damage to Jack’s staff, but he could send in his clone to protect it. It was time to end this. 

“Fine. Have it your way.” And with that, he screamed.

Danny hadn’t used his Ghostly Wail in decades, and he had forgotten what it felt like. He could feel his energy literally draining out of him. Apparently, it wasn’t healthy to suddenly expel so much energy when he hadn’t done anything at this level for years. Still, it was just as effective as ever. Summer spirits went flying as a wall of pure sound slammed into them.

Danny kept the Wail going as long as he could, but eventually he had to stop. He collapsed to the ground, completely drained. He felt himself turn back to human, and he could tell that it would be a while before he would be able to turn back to ghost form. 

Slowly, he raised his head. That one action alone felt like it took more energy than he had at the moment. He noticed vaguely that Jack’s staff was on the ground next to him. Apparently his clone had managed to retrieve it before he had disappeared. He also saw that Jack was nearby. His clone had deposited Jack a few feet behind him. Jack was curled up in a little ball, shaking violently. Danny wanted to go to him, to bring him the pieces of his staff, but the idea of moving at all seemed impossible. 

Sudden pain knocked all thoughts out of his head, and Danny found himself face first on the ground again. He was confused, before he realized that someone had kicked him in the back of the head. Rolling over, he looked up into the face of the main summer spirit, the one who had broken Jack’s staff.

She looked worse for wear. Her hair had gone out, leaving her bald. Her clothes were ripped, and she was covered in scratches. She seemed to walk with a slight limp, but she was walking. She glowered down at Danny, no longer amused or cocky. Now she was just mad.

A cry of pain diverted Danny’s attention again. A couple of spirits had gone over to Jack, grabbing him off the ground. Danny cried out, trying to get to Jack, but was stopped when Baldy grabbed him by the hair. She yanked his head up, ripping a couple hairs from his scalp, before whispering viciously in his ear. 

“You’re going to wish you hadn’t done that Phantom. We were just here for Frost. If you had stayed out, we would have left you alone. But now…” 

She chuckled darkly, twisting Danny’s hair. “Now, you are going to  _ pay. _ ”

That was the last thing Danny heard before his world was replaced with pain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny woke slowly. He hurt everywhere. He couldn’t quite remember what had happened, but he knew it was bad. There was something he was worried about. Someone…

_ JACK! _

Danny’s eyes flew open, searching for his friend. He peeled himself off the ground, looking around frantically. Spotting his friend, he forgot his own pains, scrambling to his feet and stumbling over to him.

“Jack!” Danny grabbed Jack by the shoulders, pulling him up into his lap. He could barely recognize his friend. He face was a mess of bruises and cuts. On the ground next to him was Jack’s staff. It was in more pieces than Danny remembered, and the pieces were charred. Someone had tried to burn it, but it hadn’t worked. Danny thanked his lucky stars that the staff wasn’t a collection of ash, but he didn’t see how its current condition was much better. He knew that Jack could put it back together, but he had to be conscious to do that, and something told Danny that Jack wasn’t waking up anytime soon.

Danny felt like crying. He was alone and hurting and his best friend was seriously injured. He didn’t have enough energy to go ghost, so he was stuck in human form, which severely slowed his healing abilities. Jack needed help, but Danny could barely walk, let alone get Jack to someone who could help.

Danny curled over his friend, shaking as the tears started. He looked up to see the moon. Night had fallen while he was unconscious, and now the moon hung low in the sky. Tears streaming down his cheeks, Danny focused on the moon.

“Help me. Please, I need help. I can’t… I don’t know what to do!”

The moon didn’t answer. Sobbing in earnest now, Danny hunched over Jack once more. He may not be able to do much, but he would protect Jack as best as he could. 

Danny wasn’t sure how long he cried before a shadow fell over him. He looked up quickly, terrified that the summer spirits had come back to finish the job. But instead of a group of murderous summer spirits, he saw Sandy.

Danny stared at Sandy in shock. He never would have guessed that one of the Guardians would just happen across them. He jumped to his feet, stumbling toward Sandy. He would have fallen if Sandy hadn’t caught him.

“Sandy! Thank goodness. There was this group of summer spirits. They ambushed me and Jack. I tried to drive them off, but there were too many. They broke Jack’s staff. He needs help. You need… you need to…”

  
  
As Danny was rambling, Sandy gently deposited him on his sand cloud. Danny continued to talk as Sandy collected Jack and the various pieces of his staff. He didn’t stop until Sandy came over to him, placing a finger over his lips.

Danny cut off, looking at Sandy with wide eyes. Sandy smiled gently, making a symbol of a thumbs up. Danny relaxed slightly, seeing that his message had gone through. With the tension gone from Danny’s body, Sandy was able to sprinkle dream sand over him, sending him into the first sleep he had had in decades.

With both boys unconscious, Sandy’s smile faded. He had gotten enough out of Danny’s speech to be very unhappy. As soon as Danny and Jack were okay, a certain group of summer spirits were going to get a visit from a rather ticked off Sandman.

He sped off into the night, eager to get both boys to the North Pole. The entire way, the moon kept close watch, making sure that his boys were safe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Waking was a much more pleasant experience for Danny the second time round. He was on a soft surface, and all of his injuries were wrapped up and taken care of. When his eyes opened, he was not surprised to see that he was in North’s workshop.

He turned his head to the side, taking in the rest of the room. Spotting Jack’s form on another bed, a bit of tension bled out of him. Safe in the knowledge that Jack was okay, he turned to the other half of the room.

Only to get a faceful of overwrought Tooth Fairy.

“Danny! You’re awake! How do you feel? Are you okay? What happened? Why were you attacked? Am I bothering you? Is this too many questions? I am so sorry, I’ve just been so worried and you and Jack have been asleep for so long and-”

“Tooth! Lay off him. He just woke up.” Tooth backed up a bit to reveal Bunny standing in the doorway of the room. He walked over to Danny, laying a gentle paw on his head.

“You’re alright.” he said softly. Danny wasn’t sure who he was trying to reassure, Danny or himself. Either way, he did feel better. He and Bunny had gotten off to a bad start, but the Pooka’s actions since had endeared him to Danny. These days, Bunny's presence made him feel safe. 

“It was close. You both have multiple broken bones, and suffered from severe blood loss. Not even you could survive that, Danny,” a new voice boomed. 

North and Sandy joined the group in the room, completing the Guardians. Of course, it was hard to feel complete when one member was currently unconscious and showed no signs of waking. 

Danny looked away at North’s diagnosis. He knew for a fact that he could survive such injuries. He had been hurt worse during his ghost fighting days multiple times, and he had survived. However, he didn’t think that this was the kind of fact that would make the Guardians feel better. 

Tooth cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Danny,” she began hesitantly, “What happened? We know that it was summer spirits, but why would they attack?”

Danny shifted, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. “Why do they ever?” he muttered. It was the wrong thing to say.

Tooth eyes widened, and her hand went to her mouth, stifling a gasp. Sandy sent up an exclamation point, and Bunny growled under his breath. North stepped forward, a serious look on his face.

“Danny. Are you telling me that summer spirits have attacked you and Jack before?”

Danny hesitated. Jack had always insisted that they not tell the other Guardians about the attacks. But Jack was in a coma, and Danny was scared and tired. Slowly, he nodded. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times, before he began to speak.

“They attack us all the time. I don’t know why. We never did anything to them. Normally there’s just a couple of them, and we can fend them off, but today…” Danny took a shuddering breath. “There were so many. And then they got Jack’s staff, and it was just me, and I tried, but…” 

Danny broke off as he began to cry again. He had been so scared. Seeing Jack hurt like that had been terrifying, and the worst part was that there had been nothing that he could do to protect him.

Tooth wrapped her arms around Danny, holding him as he cried. Bunny glowered at nothing in particular, muttering under his breath. He seemed to be listing off a series of increasingly creative death threats.

North watched Danny sadly. “Why didn’t you tell us?” he murmured, speaking mostly to himself. Which was why it was such a surprise when a voice answered him.

“I was embarrassed.”

The whole group turned to see Jack, awake and sitting up, watching them.

“Jack!” Danny wormed his way out of Tooth’s arms, flinging himself at Jack. He managed to curl up on Jack’s bed, clinging to the older boy.

Jack smiled at him fondly. “Heya Casper. Miss me?”

Danny glared up at him. “Don’t you ever do that to me again! When I saw you on the ground like that I…” Danny trailed off, tears once more filling his eyes. Jack’s smile faded.

“Yeah, I know.” Jack said quietly. Danny made a strange noise in the back of his throat, before burying his face in Jack’s lap. He seemed perfectly content to remain there for the foreseeable future.

Jack occupied himself by stroking Danny’s hair. He refused to look at any of the Guardians, seeming even more uncomfortable than Danny had been. North approached carefully, voicing the question they had all been thinking.

“What do you mean, you were embarrassed?”

Jack huffed. “I’m the newest Guardian. You guys treat me like a little kid, even though I’m more than 300 years old. I wanted to prove that I could take care of myself, that I didn’t need your protection. The summer spirits were just proof that I wasn’t fit to be a Guardian. I mean, other spirits don’t dare attack you guys, except Pitch.”

Jack sighed, continuing to mess with Danny’s hair. “I should have told you guys, even if it was just for Danny’s sake. He didn’t deserve this. I just didn’t want you guys to be disappointed in me.”

The other Guardians shared a look, before Bunny came forward. He sat on the bed, looking at Jack and Danny. He rested a paw on Danny’s back, feeling the tension there.    
  
“Do you know why no spirit ever bothers any of the Guardians?” he asked Jack. Jack slowly shook his head, still not looking at Bunny. “It’s because they know that if they mess with one Guardian, they mess with all of them. We’re a group Jack. We’re stronger together.”

Jack felt tears fill his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. “I know that.” he whispered. “It’s just… hard.”

“I know, Frostbite. Trust me, I know, and I am so sorry. But let us help you.” 

Jack was silent for a long moment, and Bunny was afraid that his offering would be rejected. But then, Jack slowly nodded.

“Okay.” he whispered, finally looking at Bunny. “Okay.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry that I didn't update yesterday. I kinda forgot that it was Monday... Hopefully it won't happen again! Anyway, enjoy!

Jack groaned. He was so bored. He had been trapped in North’s workshop for what felt like forever. It hadn’t been so bad when Danny had still been here, but Sandy and Tooth had started taking Danny on ‘supervised outings’ to build up his strength. Jack would give his right arm to be out there with them, but he was still confined to the Workshop.

Jack groaned again, making his displeasure very clear. It was so unfair. Normally, he and Danny healed at a pretty similar rate, but the damage his staff had taken had seriously set back his healing. He had managed to fix his staff in small portions, but it still hurt. His entire body ached, even though most of his visible injuries had healed. What was even worse was that he couldn’t use his abilities. Any attempt to channel his power through his staff resulted in horrible pain spiking through him, and immediate unconsciousness. So until he could actually fly and create ice again, he was grounded at the North Pole. 

Thus the boredom. He couldn’t even freeze elves to pass the time. With nothing to do, he had taken to annoying North in the only way he could. 

By groaning obnoxiously every three seconds.

“Jack!” Jack grinned to himself. It had taken 301 groans, but North had finally broken. “Could you please stop?”

“I’m bored!” Jack whined. He rolled off of North’s desk where he had been sprawled. He expected to land lightly on his feet, but had forgotten his current physical state. As a result, he fell heavily to the ground.

The moan that he let out from the floor was one filled with genuine pain. North rushed over, frustration forgotten.

“Jack! Are you okay?”

Jack waved off North’s concern, pulling himself up using the desk as a support. Once upright, he found himself incredibly lightheaded, and he leaned against the desk, breathing deeply.

“I’m alright, just… give me a sec.” 

North stayed back, watching Jack collect himself. He had learned the hard way that Jack didn’t take too well to people trying to help him, unless it was Danny. Even then, Jack liked to take care of himself. He may have accepted the Guardians’ offer of help, but most of the time he didn’t think he needed it. 

Once Jack’s breathing evened out, North approached. “I would have helped you up.”

Jack nodded. “I know. But it wasn’t necessary. I can take care of myself.”

“Like you did when the summer spirits attacked?” Jack winced, looking away. North sighed, regretting the comment. The problem with Jack was getting him to recognize when he needed help. Just because he  _ could  _ do something on his own, didn’t mean that he  _ should  _ do it on his own.

This was a lesson the Guardians had been trying to teach Jack ever since he joined their ranks, but nothing had ever worked. But now, North had a plan.

“If it had been Danny instead of you, would you have wanted me to help?”

Jack looked shocked at the question. “Of course! How can you even ask that?”

“Well, you seem to think that you don’t need help, so why would Danny? Are you saying that he wouldn’t be able to get himself back on his feet?”

Jack’s face was an interesting mix of anger and indignation. “What? No! Danny is the strongest person I know. He can do anything he puts his mind to!”

“And yet you still would want me to help him.” Jack fell silent, looking conflicted. North let him think for a moment, before adding, “It’s the same for you Jack.” 

“S’not.” Jack denied, but he looked unsure. 

“Why not? Because you are older?” North laughed, clapping Jack on the back. “Hate to break it to you, but to the rest of us, you’re still a baby.”

Jack scowled. “I am not a baby.” he growled. North held up his hands in a placating manner.

“I know, I know. Just an expression.” When the look on Jack’s face didn’t change, North dropped his hands.

“Jack. We  _ know  _ you can take care of yourself. You have proven it over and over again. We just wish that you didn’t feel like you have to. You said you would let us help you.”

“I’m still here, aren’t I?” Jack asked defensively. At North’s unimpressed look, he sighed. 

“Right. I guess I’ve been a pretty bad patient.”

North snorted at that. “Pretty bad? Every time I came to change your bandages, I was afraid you were going to bite me!”

Jack had the good grace to look sheepish. “Yeah, sorry about that. It’s just... “

Jack pulled his staff close, curling around it. He had not set it down once since he had reassembled it. Despite Jack’s best efforts, it did not look good. It might be in one piece, but some parts still looked charred. No frost decorated the staff, and it seemed fragile. Breakable. North sometimes thought the whole thing looked like one big open sore. It was honestly no surprise that Jack was feeling defensive. He was the most vulnerable he had ever been since becoming a spirit, and for an independent soul like Jack, that had to hurt.

North gazed at Jack’s staff. “It will get better Jack. Soon you’ll be annoying Bunny by freezing his river.”

Jack ran a hand over his staff gently, as if trying to will it into complete repair.

“It hurts.” he said softly. “Not just physically, though that too. It just… it hurts that I can’t move like I always have, that I couldn’t protect Danny, that I can’t do the one thing I’m supposed to be good at.”

Jack wiped at his face angrily, not sure when the tears had started.

“I know I’m a troublemaker. Of course I know that. People couldn’t stop shouting it at me for 300 years. I make a mess of everything. It’s who I am. But at least I could always make the children laugh. All it took was one snowball, and a whole group of kids would be happy for hours. It was my one redeeming quality, and now I can’t even do that.” 

“Jack,” North chided gently. “The children do not love you because you can make it snow. They love you because you laugh at their jokes, because you comfort them when they’re scared, because they know you would do anything for them. They love  _ you _ Jack, not your staff.”

“Sure.” North sighed at Jack’s words. Jack clearly did not agree. He’d had no idea that Jack thought so little of himself. He always seemed so happy and confident. Now that he thought about it, he remembered Bunny mentioning Jack and Danny and something about masks, but he hadn’t been paying much attention at the time. North wished that Aster was here, but with Easter being a week away, he couldn’t spare much time to aimlessly hang out at the North Pole.

That meant it was up to him. But how could he connect with Jack, convince him that he was more than an annoying troublemaker.

Suddenly, inspiration hit. It was perfect, a way to relate to Jack in a very real way. But it would mean admitting a very embarrassing fact, one he had hidden for centuries. 

North winced internally. Once he got over his shock, Jack would never let him live this down. But if it helped him, North was willing to make that sacrifice.

“Jack, can I tell you a secret?” Jack perked up noticeably at that. He nodded, curious to hear what North was going to say. North took a deep breath, readying himself, before blurting it out.

“I have been on the naughty list before.”

Jack stared at North in complete shock. “Wh-what?” he spluttered. “How is that even possible?”

North looked embarrassed. “It was a long time ago. I ah- got into a fight with Cupid. It...didn’t end well.”

Jack could tell that there was more to the story, and he was definitely going to get it at some point, but that wasn’t his main concern at the moment. “Why are you telling me this?”

“You are troublemaker, yes? That is why you are always on the naughty list. But naughty list is not ultimate guide to good and evil. Every single Guardian has been on the naughty list at some point, including me. It happens more often than you would think. You like pranks, but you are not mean. Your pranks are good-natured, and you try to fix any mistakes you make. You are a good person Jack, no matter what anyone says. Besides, messes make things more interesting, no?

Jack snorted. “You sound like Danny,” he muttered, but he was starting to smile, so North counted that as a victory.

North suddenly clapped his hands, startling Jack. “You are bored, yes? Come! We will make cookies.”

North strode from the room, heading toward the kitchen. Jack trailed after him, looking a little bemused. 

“You’d think that after last time you wouldn’t want me within ten feet of your kitchen.” Jack commented. 

North waved a hand. “Nonsense. I will supervise this time. Everything will be fine.”

Everything was not fine. In the space of one hour, Jack and North somehow managed to break three ovens, ruin twelve batches of cookies, and get flour on every conceivable surface in the kitchen, including the ceiling. Finally, the yeti chefs chased them out, yelling garbled insults and threats.

Both spirits were laughing as they ran out of the kitchen. While North was covered in a variety of different ingredients, Jack had somehow remained spotless throughout the experience. As they walked back to North’s office, Jack teased North both about his appearance and his lack of baking ability. 

“Why did you put an entire bottle of peppermint into the third batch? I’m pretty sure that’s what caused the first oven to explode.”

North shrugged helplessly. “I like peppermint. I thought more was better.”

Jack was having a hard time walking, he was laughing so hard. “Even I know you don’t put an entire bottle of flavoring in a batch of cookies, especially not one that big! I would have thought that you would know how to make cookies, considering you like them so much.”

North was about to respond indignantly, when he froze. Jack stopped laughing, startled by North’s sudden change.

“What is it?” he asked nervously, twisting his staff in his hands. 

“Jack,” North breathed, pointing at Jack’s staff. “Look.”

Jack tilted his head, confused. He looked down at his staff only to suck in a surprised breath. Frost was crawling across the surface. The icy decorations weren’t as widespread as they normally were, but they were there. 

Jack looked up at North with big eyes. “Do you think…” he trailed off uncertainly.

“Give it a try.” North urged. Jack nodded, before carefully trailing the tip of his staff along the floor. It left a thin trail of frost behind. 

Jack only managed a small trail of frost before he flagged, sagging against North. His face was gray and he was shaking, but he was beaming as he looked up at North. 

“It worked!” Jack was obviously relieved. Now that he had proof that his ability was coming back, he felt like a boulder had been removed from his shoulders. 

North nodded and was about to speak when he suddenly realized something. Jack was leaning against him. For the past couple of weeks, Jack had refused any help from any of the Guardians when he felt dizzy or unsteady. He would lean against a wall or a chair, but he would fall flat on his face before using a fellow Guardian for support. 

As North gazed down on Jack’s smiling face, a new warmth began to fill him. He ruffled Jack’s hair laughing as Jack squawked in protest. Despite the assault on his hair, Jack didn’t move away, and the warmth inside North grew stronger.

Jack finished fixing his hair, before letting out a happy sigh, settling more fully against North. 

“It’s not much,” he acknowledged. “But it’s a good start.”

“Yes.” North agreed with a knowing smile as he began to guide Jack toward a bed. “It is.”


	8. Chapter 8

Danny landed next to Jack’s lake with a sigh. It had been a long week. He had finally convinced the Guardians to let him out by himself, but he was starting to regret it. Danny did not do well in solitude. In the past when Jack wanted some alone time, Danny would go hang with the Guardians, or watch his friends and family from a distance. Now, he couldn’t exactly do either of those.

Danny sighed again, leaning against a tree. He should just go back to the North Pole. Jack was there, and it would make the other Guardians much happier to be able to keep an eye on him. But he had obligations. He and Jack had disappeared for a long time, and the kids had noticed. As soon as he had been able, Danny had taken off, apologizing to kids whose visits had been missed and just trying to make sure the kids knew what had happened. 

Danny slid down the tree, resting his head on his knees. Interacting with the kids was  _ hard.  _ Despite what one might think, he wasn’t a Guardian. He loved kids, and he loved playing with them, but he wasn’t magically destined to spend all his time with them. Normally he followed along with whatever Jack planned, just helping out and adding special little details. Having to make all plans himself was a whole different story. 

Still he did it, because Jack cared so much about the kids. Heck, he cared about the kids enough to do it on his own. Danny gave a humorless laugh. He never would have guessed back when he first learned that he was immortal that he would spend the rest of his life playing with little kids with an immortal ice spirit. Funny the paths that life takes you. 

Suddenly, Danny’s head shot up. Someone was here. Someone… inhuman.

It had taken Danny a while to realize it, but his ghost sense actually worked on spirits, just more subtly. There was no physical manifestation, but the cold that he always felt inside him got a little more intense around other spirits. Normally, it didn’t really work as an early warning system because he was always with Jack or another spirit, but now that he was alone, he felt the sudden chill that he had come to associate with the spirits. 

“Who’s there?” he called, floating upright and lighting up his right hand with ecto-energy. He wouldn’t normally go straight into battle prep when encountered with a new spirit, but he was a little tense right now. He was alone, and only recently healed from one of the worst beat downs he had had in decades. He wasn’t about to be taken by surprise.

“Danny Phantom. I’ve been dying to meet you.”

Danny blinked, lowering his hand. The voice had come out of the shadows, and sounded… familiar. No, that wasn’t right. It wasn’t that he had heard this voice before so much that he had heard it described. But that would mean…

“Pitch Black?”

A shape came out of the shadows, a tall, gray man. Danny backed up a step as Pitch Black in all his glory emerged into the open space around the lake.

Pitch grinned, taking in the small halfa. Danny was short for a fourteen year old, and Pitch towered over him. 

“Scared, Phantom?”

Danny stared up at Pitch, before doing a quick circle around him.

“Hmm. You look exactly like I imagined. Jack did a really good job at describing you.”

Pitch was a little surprised at that reaction, but he rallied and continued.

“So… Jack has talked about me. All nice things, I hope?”

Danny laughed at that. “Did you really expect that? You broke his staff! That really hurts him. I didn’t really get that until I saw his staff get broken recently. Not sure if I can ever really forgive you for that.”

Pitch lounged on one of the many stones around the lake. “So. Jack is hurt. Are you sure you wanted to tell me that?”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Oh no. I told you something the whole spirit world knows, whatever will I do. Now you are definitely going to single handedly attack the North Pole in your weakened state while all the Guardians are in overprotective mama hen mode.”

Danny snickered, no longer able to keep a straight face. “Yeah, good luck with that.”

Pitch flushed, embarrassed. He hadn’t really thought that one through. Still, he was not about to back down to the little twerp. He was an ancient being of fear, and this child _ would  _ tremble before him. 

“I don’t need to attack the North Pole to damage the Guardians. All I need to do is attack you.”

Danny sighed. “Would you quit it with trying to intimidate me? It’s not going to work. If you made the terrible decision to attack me, I would just run away. I can move faster than any spirit I have ever met. I usually hang around during fights because Jack can’t run away as well as I can. Or he’s too stupid to.”

“You’d run away?” Pitch asked with a sharp grin. “Afraid you’d lose?”

“Not really. I just don’t feel like fighting right now. Even if you did manage to hurt me, which is unlikely, all you would do was anger the aforementioned overprotective Guardians. Trust me, a fight between the two of us would end much worse for you than it would for me.”

Pitch stared at Phantom. He was… different. Now that he thought about it, Phantom didn’t feel like anyone he had ever met. If there was one thing that Pitch could always tell, it was someone’s greatest fear, but with Phantom…

“You don’t fear anything?”

Danny flinched at that. He laughed nervously, rubbing his arm. “Yeah… Jack told me about that too. You seeing people’s fears and all that?”

Normally, Pitch would have latched onto Danny’s apparent insecurity, but something seemed off with how Danny had said it. He wasn’t scared of Pitch, or even unnerved by his ability. His nervousness came from something else entirely. 

“Jack mentioned that ability?”

Danny looked incredibly uncomfortable. Still not scared, but definitely not happy. 

“Yeah. Honestly, hearing Jack talk about you, I get the feeling that he feels bad for you.”

Pitch was floored. That was the last thing he expected to hear from Danny. 

“Excuse me? He feels sorry for me?”

Danny clapped a hand over his mouth. “I didn’t mean that. Forget I said that. Sorry, the only people I ever really talk to are Jack and little kids, so my verbal filter leaves a little to be desired.”

Pitch looked at Danny strangely. It seemed like he didn’t want to hurt his feelings. It was… strange. 

“I would think that he would hate me. After all, I did break his staff.”

Danny shrugged, looking away. “No. Jack has never hated you. He understands you too well.”

“Excuse me?”

Pitch was flabbergasted. He had not expected this conversation to go this way at all. He had just wanted check out the Guardians newest toy and let him know who was in charge, but then all of this happened. 

Danny picked at his sleeve. “You know… the both of you were unbelieved in for so long… Jack has never really gotten over that. I think that’s why he’ll never be able to hate you. I’m still holding out judgement on that front.”

“You haven’t decided? Are you trying to say that you understand me too?”

“Nah.” Danny grinned at Pitch. “Everyone can see me. That’s why I ran away. So I don’t get what it’s like to be alone and unbelieved in.”

Pitch tilted his head. Normally, having someone speak to him so plainly and fearlessly would infuriate him, but this conversation was one of the most interesting things to ever happen to him, so he decided to keep it going a little longer.

“I’m sensing a but there…”

Danny’s grin turned a little sheepish. “Well… I may not know what it feels like to not exist, but I do know what it feels like to be excluded from a group.”

Pitch raised an eyebrow (does he have eyebrows? whatever) and gestured for Danny to continue.

“Ah…” Danny clearly did not want to explain himself, but he went on. “I was bullied pretty badly my whole childhood. Sometimes it seemed like the whole rest of the school conspired to form some kind of ‘Hate Danny’ club. That’s kind of the vibe I get between you and the Guardians. All you want is for someone to accept you, but all you get is hate and isolation.”

“I don’t want to be accepted by the Guardians,” Pitch spat. “I want to destroy them!”

“Sure.” Danny did not look convinced, but he let the issue drop. Silence fell over the clearing. Danny seemed perfectly comfortable with just hanging out with the Boogeyman.

Pitch, on the other hand, was completely thrown. He could not comprehend this immortal child.    
  


“Why didn’t you run away?”

Danny glanced up at Pitch. He had taken a seat on the ground next to Pitch’s rock, so the height difference between the two was even more pronounced. 

“What do you mean?” Danny asked. 

“When I first appeared.” Pitch clarified. “You said it yourself. You could have gotten away quite easily, yet you stayed. Why?”

“I’m bored.”

Somehow, Danny continued to surprise Pitch. Of all the things Pitch thought Danny would say, that was not one of them. 

“You’re bored?” he said incredulously. He wasn’t sure if he should be insulted or not. 

“Yeah well, I’ve been by myself for like a week now. I spent all this time convincing the Guardians to leave me alone, but I just ended up getting lonely. Still, I’ve got too much pride to go crawling back to them now. If Jack would just hurry up and get better, this wouldn’t be a problem…”

Danny trailed off, muttering to himself. Pitch couldn’t hear exactly what he was saying, but it seemed to be mostly insults aimed at Jack and his inferior healing. Pitch had to stop himself from laughing at a couple of them.

“Anyway,” Danny said. “Then you showed up, and you seem like a pretty interesting guy, so I figured there would be no harm in chatting with you for a while.”

“No harm?” Pitch was offended. “You do know who I am, right?”

Danny rolled his eyes, waving a dismissive hand. “Yeah, yeah, you’re the Boogeyman, King of Fear, and all that. It’s not like it’s your fault or anything. I don’t hold it against you.”

“Excuse me?” Pitch couldn’t believe how many times he had been reduced to that phrase during the course of this conversation.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Danny said hurriedly. “I do not approve of you trying to drown the world in endless fear or killing the Guardians, or any of that crazy stuff. But the fact that you feed off fear or whatever isn’t exactly your fault. Nor is it inherently bad. Fear has a purpose. Maybe if I had had a bit more fear, I wouldn’t be like this.”

Pitch tilted his head, interested in that last comment. “You… regret becoming Phantom?”

Danny shrugged. “I dunno. There are some days where I wouldn’t give it up for the world but…”

Danny smiled sadly. “I miss my family. You get that.”

Pitch didn’t say anything. He did understand what it was like to miss family, to know that they would never come back. 

Danny stood up, stretching. “Well, this was fun, but I gotta go. Appointments to keep and all that.”

Danny started to fly away, but was stopped by Pitch.

“Wait. Before you go, I have to know. Why don’t you have any fears?”

Danny hesitated, before sighing. 

“I have fears. I have so many. The thing is, I have seen them all happen, and I have survived them, more or less. There is nothing else that can be done to me.”

Pitch couldn’t think of a response to that, so he said nothing. He simply nodded, before turning to walk into the shadows.

A thought hit him just as he reached the tree line. He hurriedly turned back to Danny, calling out.

“You won’t tell the Guardians about this, will you?” 

Danny snickered. “Are you kidding? If I tell them about this, they won’t let me out of eyesight for the next 300 years. Don’t worry Pitch, there won’t be any angry Guardians showing up at your door because of me.”

Before Pitch could protest that he wasn’t worried, Danny took off. As he disappeared, he called over his shoulder.

“See ya around Pitch!” 

Then he was gone.

Pitch stood in the clearing for a long time after Danny left. That had not gone according to plan, but he found that he didn’t mind. Danny had treated him in a way that no one had for a long time. He almost seemed like he might want to be fri-

Pitch shook his head sharply. What was he thinking? He was the Boogeyman! He did not have  _ friends _ . He didn’t want them either. What he wanted was to destroy the Guardians and take over the world. Nothing else. 

Having affirmed that in his head, Pitch left the clearing. And if there was a voice in the back of his mind saying that Danny wasn’t technically a Guardian and so maybe he didn’t need to be destroyed, well. Nobody would know. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One thing of note, this takes place 15 years after Danny met the Guardians. Enjoy!

Jack groaned. He was finally clear to leave the North Pole, and he had to come back almost immediately for a meeting. He had a sneaking suspicion that the other Guardians had planned it like that, but he couldn’t prove it. Even if he could, there wasn’t much he could do about it. Danny hadn’t been willing to help him run away until he was one hundred percent better, so Jack had been stuck until the Guardians let him go. 

Bunny chuckled at Jack’s obvious discomfort. Even though they were on better terms since Danny showed up, they were still best described as ‘friendly rivals.’ Seeing Jack twitch was rather amusing for the Pooka, seeing as he was usually the twitchy one. And, if he was being perfectly honest, it was nice to see Jack so mobile again. Every time he remembered Jack laying on the bed in the infirmary, unmoving and unconscious, he got chills. Jack Frost should never be still.

Danny was also amused at Jack’s antics, but he was more sympathetic. He knew how badly Jack wanted to be out in the world. And it wasn’t just that Jack missed the kids, though he did. Jack was an elemental spirit. Being trapped in doors for such a long time wasn’t good for him. He needed to be out in nature, connecting with his element in the wild. 

“Relax, Jack. This meeting is basically a formality. We all know what has been happening with each other this past month. You’ll be out throwing snowballs and pranking people in no time.”

Jack smiled tiredly. “Thanks Tooth. Sorry for being like this. It’s just…”

“No need to apologize!” North boomed. “Tooth is right. Meeting is just a formality. We will end it right now. You and Danny can go play now.”

“Go play?” Danny was scandalized. “What are we, six?”

“No time for banter!” Jack said, grabbing the back of Danny’s sweatshirt and dragging him toward the window. “Let’s go right now before anything happens to stop us.”

“Paranoid much?” Danny muttered. “Nothing is going to happen.” 

It was at that exact moment that a pair of clock handles appeared in midair, spinning to create a portal. The Guardians scrambled to assume defensive positions while Danny simply froze with his mouth hanging wide open. 

A figure appeared in the portal, a man with a clock in his chest holding a scepter. 

“Who are you?” Bunny yelled, but before the figure could answer, Danny spoke.

“Clockwork? What are you doing here?”

Clockwork smiled. “Hello Daniel. It is good to see you again. I hope you have been doing well.”

Danny seemed to slowly unfreeze, floating closer to the time ghost.

“Yeah, I’ve been good. That didn’t answer my question. Why are you here? You only show up when something bad is about to happen.”

“Danny, you know this guy?”

Danny jerked at Jack’s words. He spun around, eyes wide. He had clearly forgotten that the Guardians were there.

“Oh yeah, sorry. Um, guys, this is Clockwork, the Master of all Time. I know him from my Phantom days. He can see all of time, every possible twist and turn of the timeline. He is also not supposed to meddle in time, but it’s never stopped him before.”

This last sentence was said with a glare in Clockworks direction. Clockwork responded by turning into an old man.

“Do not pretend you are ungrateful for my meddling, Daniel. The world would be a very different place if not for my intervention.”

Danny blushed, looking at the ground. Jack longed to know what they were talking about, but he knew Danny well enough to know that it was something he would never talk about. He would let it go. 

“I’ve heard of you.” North suddenly interjected himself into the conversation. “You are a type of Guardian as well. You do excellent work.”

Clockwork tilted his head in North’s direction, changing into a child. “Thank you, Nicholas. I must say, I do enjoy watching the happiness the Guardians of childhood bring to the children. In a world where violence and pain reign, the joy you spread is a welcome change.”

All the Guardians looked pleased at that. While they did not do their work for the glory, it was nice to get recognition every once and a while, especially from a being such as the Time Master. 

“Seriously though, what are you doing here.” Danny had recovered from whatever had bothered him, and he was looking very anxious. “You never just randomly show up. You always have a reason.”

Clockwork smiled. It was an odd smile. “Oh, no reason. I am not here to warn you about something terrible. Just felt like dropping by.”

Danny stared at Clockwork. If he didn’t know better, he would say that the ghost was being facetious. But that couldn’t be right. Clockwork was always serious. Always.

“You… just felt like dropping by…” he said slowly, disbelief radiating off of him. 

“That is correct. Nothing bad is going to happen. And even if it were, I wouldn’t be allowed to tell you, so no need to worry or be careful. Everything is fine.” Clockwork concluded his little speech by winking.

Danny was pretty sure he had just died again. Clockwork had just  _ winked  _ at him. Winked! Clockwork didn’t do things like that! Was he in an alternate dimension? That made much more sense than Clockwork’s behavior. 

Noting Danny’s state of mental incapacitation, Jack jumped in. “So, if that’s all you wanted, me and Danny kind of had something to do, so we’re just gonna go…”

“One moment, Jack. I also came because a friend of Danny’s wanted to see him. I agreed to bring him here. It would also be good for the rest of you to meet him. One never knows when a friend might be needed.”

Before anyone could question what Clockwork meant, a second figure came out of the portal. A very large figure. A very large and intimidating figure. 

Jack swallowed harshly as he stared up at what appeared to be a yeti, but it was different from North’s yetis. He had a dark look on his face, and one arm was made of ice, allowing the bone underneath to be seen. Jack could tell that this was a warrior, an experienced one. All he could do was repeat  _ Clockwork said he was a friend, Clockwork said he was a friend  _ over and over inside his head, but he was having a hard time staying calm. 

That ended when Danny’s face broke into a huge grin.

“Frostbite! I can’t believe it!”

He ran at the large creature, throwing his arms around him. Frostbite laughed, returning the hug fiercely. 

“Ah, I have missed you. Your visits were always so interesting, Great One.”

Danny blushed at Frostbite’s words. Behind him, Jack and Bunny broke into identical grins. 

“Great One?” Jack asked, looking like winter had come early. Danny groaned.

“Did you have to call me that in front of the others?” he asked Frostbite. “I’ll never live it down!”

Frostbite just smiled and turned to the Guardians. 

“My people call the Ghost Child ‘Great One’ because he defeated Pariah Dark, King of the Ghost Zone! He freed us all from a tyrannical ruler, when he was only fourteen years old. That was before most of his abilities had even developed. It was truly a battle worthy of epic poems and songs!”

Danny was bright red by this point. The grins on Jack and Bunny’s faces had just gotten bigger and bigger the longer Frostbite went on. Danny was a little worried that Jack’s face might split in half if he didn’t stop. 

“In fact,” Frostbite continued. “My people have written a song about the event. I shall sing it for you now. OH-”

“OKAY, THAT’S ENOUGH!!!” Danny yelled, slapping a hand over Frostbite’s mouth. “No need to sing the song.”

“But Danny…” Jack wined. “I wanted to hear it.”

Bunny and Sandy seemed disappointed as well, Bunny because he loved embarrassing his little brothers, and Sandy because he loved music.

“Nope. Sorry, but I put my foot down on the song. I know for a fact that Frostbite only wrote it to embarrass me, and I refuse to let him get away with it.” Danny glared at the yeti, his hand still over his mouth. “I’ll let you go now, but you better not start singing. If you do, I will freeze your mouth shut.”

Frostbite nodded his understanding, and Danny let go. He smiled and ruffled Danny’s hair.

“Ah, I can’t pull a fast one on you, can I Great One?”

Danny made a disgruntled noise, but he was smiling. 

“I really have missed you. Why do you never visit? There has been so much ghostly activity in Amity that natural portals open up almost constantly. Anyone can get back and forth between this world and the Ghost Zone. You should drop by. The children miss you.”

“Oh.” Danny said softly. “I uh… I don’t go to Amity anymore. Maybe… maybe in a few years.”

Frostbite looked at Danny sadly. Sam and Tucker had visited him for years after Danny disappeared, until they were too old to make the journey. He knew that Tucker was in the hospital right now, recovering from a heart attack. He also knew that it wasn’t looking good for him. Sam was still going strong, but she wasn’t young anymore. Neither would around for that much longer. Frostbite wasn’t sure, but he wouldn’t be surprised if Danny started showing up after they were both dead. He hoped that he would. Danny would need support when it happened, and it would be good for him to talk to people who had known them.

“I look forward to it.” Frostbite placed a hand on Danny’s shoulder, squeezing it lightly. “Just know that I am always here for you.”

Danny nodded, blinking back tears. Frostbite suddenly smiled again, abruptly changing the subject. 

“Maybe when you come, you will finally claim your throne!”

Danny heard a clattering sound behind him. Jack was so shocked he had just dropped his staff.

“Danny!” he yelled, eyes twinkling with mirth. “I had no idea you were royalty! Why have you kept all these secrets from me?”

Danny looked like he wanted to smash his head against the wall. “You know why!” he yelled back. “This, this thing you are doing right now, this is why! I’m not royalty! It’s just this stupid rule that whoever defeats the previous king can, emphasis on  _ can  _ here, take over the throne. Seeing as I have not done that, I am not a king, or royalty, or anything like that! And you!”

Danny spun around, pointing an accusing finger at Frostbite. “This is your fault! You know I will never take the throne of the Ghost Zone! I’m just a kid! I can’t rule an entire dimension of chaotic, powerful ghosts!”

“Just a kid?” Frostbite asked. “I don’t know about that. You are nearly eighty years old, are you not?”

“Eighty years  _ not  _ spent in the Ghost Zone. I don’t know anything about it! And you know good and well that I am not exactly progressing beyond a teenage state here. You know- ectoplasm, obsessive tendencies,  _ static living conditions _ -”

“Yes, yes.” Frostbite interrupted. “You will be forever trapped in the mindset and body of an awkward teenager. Unfortunate for you. But, that is not necessarily a bad thing for the Ghost Zone. Having some young blood in charge could be just what we need!”

Danny stared at Frostbite, his mouth opening and closing repeatedly. He narrowed his eyes.

“You’re teasing me. That is what this is. You go on and on about how much your people respect me, then you go and pull stunts like this.”

Jack laughed, coming up to the pair and throwing his arm around Frostbite’s shoulder. 

“I like this guy. He’s…”

Jack trailed off, looking at Frostbite. 

“Cold?” he finished, glancing at Danny. Danny nodded in confirmation.

“Yeah, Frosty’s got an ice core too. In fact, he’s the one who taught me how to control mine.”

Jack’s face split into yet another brilliant grin.

“Awesome! I like you even more now! I don’t have enough ice buddies. All the other winter elementals are jerks.”

“Oi!” North protested. “You have me! I may not be an elemental, but I do work with ice!”

Jack and North began arguing over whether he counted as an ‘ice buddy’ while Bunny rolled his eyes. Tooth flew up to Frostbite and began to examine his teeth. Sandy followed after her, intent on rescuing the yeti from her probing fingers.

Danny watched his old and new family mix, almost giddy with happiness. He frowned as he saw Bunny and Jack start talking to Frostbite. He wasn’t sure what stories the yeti was telling them, but he was sure he wouldn’t like them. Still, despite the embarrassment, he was glad that Frostbite was here. He hadn’t realized how much he had missed Frostbite until he had seen him again.

Danny was suddenly aware of a presence behind him. He turned to see Clockwork, watching the Guardians and Frostbite interact. He seemed pleased as well. Danny floated up to him.

“Thanks for this.” 

Clockwork looked at him, his expression unreadable. “I would do anything in my power to help you, Daniel. You deserve better than what the world has done to you.”

Danny grew uneasy at Clockwork’s words. His words had been past tense, but the way they were said…

“Something bad is going to happen, isn’t it?”

Clockwork turned away from him. 

“Everything is how it should be.”

And with that, Clockwork re-entered his portal and disappeared. Danny stared after him. Was that supposed to be comforting? He wasn’t sure.

Laughter caught his attention, and he turned back to see Bunny’s tongue stuck to Frostbite’s ice arm. Jack was on the floor in hysterics, and both North and Sandy were laughing hard as well. Even Tooth was having a hard time covering her smile. 

Danny laughed, coming over to help Bunny and Frostbite out. He decided not to worry about the future. Without more information, there was nothing he could do about it. If something happened, he would deal with it. In the meantime, he would enjoy this time with his friends.

_ Besides,  _ he thought.  _ What’s the worst that can happen? _

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thousands of miles away, a man picked up a phone and dialed a number. His face was lit by a computer screen as the phone rang. 

He didn’t have to wait long before the other end was picked up.

“Sir?” he said, his eyes never leaving the screen. There was a mess of information there, but the main feature of the screen was a picture of two white haired boys, one with blue eyes, and one with green. “It’s ready.”

On the other end of the phone, a man grinned. 

“Finally.”


	10. Chapter 10

Danny flipped through the air, carving up the clouds into spirals, zig zags, and other interesting shapes. Jack followed behind him, filling in the newly created empty space with snow and ice. The two flew in a well-practiced dance, weaving in and out of each other’s paths, brushing against each other, but never once colliding. For once, there was no banter or laughter. There was simply pure joy as they interacted with nature and each other in a way no one else could. 

Danny landed lightly on a rooftop, taking in the landscape. It was beautiful, newly fallen snow dusting the trees and houses. It was still early, so the snow had not yet been disturbed by people making their daily commute to work. It glistened in the moonlight, making the landscape look as if it had been covered in thousands of diamonds.

Jack came to a stop next to Danny just as the sun began to rise. The whole world lit up, and both boys smiled. Jack threw an arm around Danny, who leaned into him. They were both glad to be back in the world together, spreading fun and beauty the way only they could. It had been too long since they had been able to dance with the wind and snow, and they were glad for this chance. 

The boys stayed still in that position until the sun fully came up. Finally, they shook themselves back into movement, taking flight and heading back toward Jack’s lake. They had told the children to meet them there in the morning. They were both extremely excited about what they had planned for the children today. They wanted to do something extra special to make up for the time that had been confined to the North Pole.

When the attack came, it was completely unexpected. A net came out of nowhere and hit Jack, knocking him from the sky. Danny froze in midair, stunned. He spun wildly, searching for the source of the attack. All he saw was a group of men gathered around a van. There was no one else. Danny wasn’t even sure what he was looking for. He couldn’t think of any spirits that used glowing green nets. The last time he had seen a net like that was when…

Danny’s train of thought was halted as another net was launched at him. He went intangible on instinct, only for the net to catch him anyway. He hit the ground hard, the breath knocked out of him.

_ What the…  _ he thought, struggling to escape the confines of the net. He heard a scream and twisted his head to see Jack, trapped in his own net, twisting violently. Danny realised with horror that electricity was running through the net. The shocks kept up until Jack finally went limp. 

“Jack!” Danny yelled. He charged up his fists with ectoplasm, desperate to get to his friend, but before he could act, his own net sparked. He cried out as electricity surged through his system. He had forgotten how much getting electrocuted hurt. 

Danny fought through the pain and released the energy he had built up in his fists. The net was blown away and Danny staggered to his feet. Recovering quickly, he flew over to Jack, intent on protecting him. Danny wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but he was sure that Jack could not be hurt again. He couldn’t handle it, not so soon after last time. 

He was struggling to pull the net off of Jack’s limp form when a whining sound from behind him made him freeze. Danny’s mind raced. He knew that sound. He used to hear that sound on a daily basis. But that had been such a long time ago. It couldn’t be…

Danny slowly straightened up. He braced himself, before turning around.

Only to find himself staring down the barrel of an ecto-gun. 

Danny swallowed, his eyes flicking past the gun to take in the man holding it. It was one of the men who had been gathered around the van earlier. In fact, as his gaze wandered, he saw that the rest of the men were similarly armed, and they surrounded him. 

“Hands in the air, freak!” 

Danny’s eyes flew back to the original man. He slowly raised his hands, his thoughts going a thousand miles an hour. Danny could only think of a few times when he had been more confused, which was saying something considering he had spent a significant portion of his life confused. Adults didn’t see him anymore. He wasn’t exactly sure when it had started, but unless he did something really crazy, adults tended not to notice his ghost form. Their eyes just slid over him as if he wasn’t there. Jack thought it was a gift from the Man in the Moon, to allow Danny to hang out with him and help with Guardian work. Danny thought that maybe he had changed to become similar to Youngblood. Ghost's abilities were based off of their core of course, but also their self perception, and he saw himself quite differently than he had in his Phantom days. Whatever the reason actually was, he didn't really care. This was simply the way it was, and he was content to live with it. 

But now, there were all these adults staring at him. Even worse, they were looking at Jack. Danny could understand them seeing him, but Jack? That made no sense at all. 

The men didn’t seem to care about what made sense as they walked up to Jack, being sure to keep their weapons trained on Danny. They pulled the net off of Jack and yanked his body off the ground. When one of them pulled out a collar, Danny jerked forward, only to be halted by the cocking of three different guns. He watched helplessly as the men snapped the collar around Jack’s neck. 

Danny didn’t know what to do. If he had been by himself, he could have escaped easily, but he couldn’t leave Jack, and he wasn’t confident in his ability to get both of them out of there, especially with Jack unconscious. He was trapped.

Danny watched warily as a man approached him with another collar. 

“If you think I’m just going to let you put that on me, you are sorely mistaken.”

The original man grinned.

“I don’t  _ think  _ you are going to let me put it on. I  _ know  _ you will. Unless you want your buddy there to pay.”

When Danny hesitated, the man pulled a remote out of his pocket. He pushed a button, and Jack’s body started to jerk as he was shocked. Even though he was unconscious, he began to let out wimpers of pain.

“Jack!” Danny yelled, horrified. He wasn’t entirely sure how a spirit’s body would react to electricity, but he doubted it could be good. “Okay! Okay, you can put it on, just stop!”

The man stopped the electricity, and gestured the man with the collar forward. Danny had to shove down every instinct in his body as he allowed the man to secure the collar around his neck.

As soon as the collar closed, Danny collapsed to the ground. Everything felt wrong. Breathing became extremely difficult, and his vision grayed out a bit. 

“Wh- what?” he gasped, struggling to lift his head. His vision focused just in time to see the first man’s face right in front of him. 

The man grinned. He seemed almost ecstatic. 

“Finally…” he breathed. 

Danny’s brow furrowed as he tried to understand what the man was talking about, but he was finding it increasingly difficult to focus. He found that just staying awake was too difficult for him, and his vision went from gray to black. 

The last thing he saw before he completely passed out was the men manhandling Jack’s body into the back of the van.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny woke slowly. He wasn’t entirely sure what had happened. He blinked, trying to clear his head. Suddenly, all the memories came rushing back, and he sat bolt upright.

“Jack!” 

“It’s okay Danny. I’m right here. Calm down.”

Danny followed the voice, finally spotting Jack. He was sitting across from him chained to the wall. It was at that point that Danny noticed he was similarly restrained. He yanked on the chains holding him, but they stayed put. He tried going intangible and was not surprised when it didn’t work. 

He looked around the room they were in. Actually, room was a bad word for it. If he had to guess, he would say they were in the back of the van he had seen earlier. Each side of the wall had a bench, with a series of handcuffs chained to the wall. So far, only two were in use, the ones holding Jack and Danny.

Danny huffed in frustration before turning back to Jack.

“Are you okay?”

Jack shrugged one shoulder.

“I’ve been better. I think one of my shoulders is dislocated, and my staff is gone, so that sucks.”

Now that he looked closer, Danny was able to see the pain lines etched into Jack’s face. He growled. Jack wasn’t as sturdy as he was. Danny’s body was supported by ectoplasm, while Jack’s was just a normal human body. A powerful, immortal body to be sure, but one that responded to blunt force trauma a lot more than Danny’s did. 

“How are you?” Jack asked after the silence had stretched an uncomfortably long time.

Danny let out a long breath. 

  
  
“I… don’t feel so good.”

That was probably an understatement. Danny felt as if the air was three times thicker. He could barely breath, he felt nauseous, and his vision kept flickering. He felt absolutely terrible.

Still, he knew it would only worry Jack to know that, so he gave him his best grin.

“It’ll be fine. The other Guardians will notice we’re gone supper quickly. They’ll find us, and when they do, they will never let us out of their sight again.”

Jack grimaced. “Wonderful. Couldn’t these psychos have waited until the Guardians had calmed down a little before they kidnapped us?”

Danny was about to respond, when the van slowed. Both boys turned toward the doors, waiting to see what was about to happen. The doors opened and, two men climbed into the car, dragging two struggling figures behind them. 

Neither Danny nor Jack said anything as the men chained the two figures into the next pair of handcuffs. Both felt too poorly to be antagonizing their captors at the moment. 

The new captives clearly did not feel the same. They were both screaming and yelling at the top of their lungs, twisting and fighting, not letting up until both men had exited the back of the van. 

Later, Danny would blame his late recognition on the fact that he felt absolutely awful, but at the time he was too shocked to really think about it. Once the two figures calmed down a bit, he realized he knew them.

“Skulker? Ember? What are you guys doing here?”

Both figures froze, giving Danny a good look. It really was the mechanical hunter and his rocker girlfriend. Danny hadn’t seen them since he left Amity Park, and to see them now was… honestly just weird.

“Dipstick?” Ember spun her head to look at him. “No freaking way! We had no clue you were still alive! Where have you been kid?”

Danny really wished he could rub his head. This was a very confusing day. Ember seemed  _ happy  _ to see him. He had not expected that. 

“You know… around. Seriously though, what are you guys doing here. We aren’t anywhere near Amity. At least, I don’t think we are.”

“You are correct, ghost child.” Skulker cut in. “Ember and I left Amity years ago. We have been exploring the world.” 

“Just exploring?” Danny asked suspiciously. 

Ember laughed. “Don’t worry twerp. I gave up on world domination years ago. You’re little clone was too good at her job. Finally, it just wasn’t worth it to fight her. She lets us hang around as long as we don’t cause trouble. Much better than fighting all the time.”

Danny got an odd look on his face at the mention of Dani, but he shook off his melancholy and forged on. 

“How about you Skulker? Still the Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter?”

Skulker sniffed. “I will always be the Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter. But I have mellowed over the years. I no longer feel the urge to hunt constantly. Ember is enough for me.”

Danny made a face. “Gross. Still, I guess it is better than you trying to skin me alive and putting my pelt on your bed or whatever.”

Jack, who had been listening in bemused silence up to that point, suddenly spluttered.

“Excuse me? What is this about Danny’s pelt?”

Ember and Skulker turned to Jack, looking at him for the first time. 

“Who’s your friend?” Ember asked, giving Jack a once over.

“Oh yeah. Guys, this is Jack Frost, Guardian of Fun.”

Both ghost’s eyes widened. 

“A spirit?” Skulker said. “Well no wonder we never ran into you. Most ghosts try to avoid spirits.” 

Danny tilted his head. “Why?”

Ember snorted. “They are so pretentious. They think they’re better than us because they ‘came back for a righteous purpose’ while we just stuck around because of unfinished business. Jerks.”   
  


Jack groaned, smacking his head lightly against the wall. “Ugh, that is such a spirit thing to do. They are seriously the worst. This is why I’ve always liked ghosts better.”

At Ember and Skulker’s shocked faces, Danny grinned. “Jack isn’t your typical spirit. In fact, I feel like he gets a pretty similar attitude from a lot of the more boring spirits. They think he’s a troublemaker.”

Jack was about to respond when the truck stopped again. They all fell silent as another ghost was dragged onto the truck. None of them recognized the new ghost, and she refused to talk to any of them. The mood became more somber at this reminder of their situation.

“How did they get you guys, anyway? You were never that easy to catch.”

Ember and Skulker glanced at each other.

“We were caught by surprise.” Ember confessed. “Most human ghost hunters know to leave peaceful ghosts alone by this point. We just never expected to be attacked.”

“What about you?” Skulker asked. “No one could catch you back then. You knew all the tricks to getting away. I should know, trying to catch you was exhausting.”

“Same as you guys I guess,” Danny muttered, but his glance at Jack gave him away.

Jack’s face crumbled.

“It was my fault, wasn’t it? You could have gotten away, but you wouldn’t leave me.”

“Jack…” Danny trailed off, not sure what to say. He couldn’t lie to Jack.

“You should have left me.” Jack meant his words, but Danny could hear the fear behind them.

“Never.” Danny said fiercely. “Jack, I will never leave you alone. No matter what.”

Jack looked at Danny gratefully, but he didn’t say anything. Silence fell over the group as they all worried about where they were headed.

Hours passed. Slowly, the truck began to fill with more and more ghosts. Some came in groups, but most were alone. Eventually, every set of handcuffs were filled. Yet still the truck drove on.

Conversation started up again as the prisoners became bored. Soon after the last ghost was loaded up, Jack and Skulker were in a deep conversation about who would win in a fight, Superman or Wolverine.

Danny was laughing at their antics when he noticed Ember staring at him.

“What?” he asked self-consciously. 

Ember shook her head slightly. “Nothing, it’s just…”

She hesitated before continuing. 

“Here we are, captured by an unknown organization, heading off to some uncertain fate, and yet this is the happiest I've seen you in a long time.”

Danny shifted uncomfortably. “It’s been a long time since you last saw me Ember. A lot has changed.”

“I know,” Ember said with a smirk. “That’s kind of my point.”

When Danny didn’t smile back, she sighed.

“Look. I didn’t really notice it at the time, but comparing you now with how you were right before you left, the difference is obvious. You were fading kid, and fast. When I first met you, you were full of spirit and fire, ready to take on whatever I could throw at you. That kind of went away over the years. I guess I’m just glad to see you get some of your spunk back.”

Danny stared at the floor of the truck, refusing to make eye contact. Finally he spoke.

“I was having a hard time those last few months in Amity. I was failing school, and my parents were always mad at me for skipping class and missing curfew. And I was so tired. If I had known that I could give up sleep back then, I would have done it in a heartbeat.”

Danny leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes. “Still, I could have handled all of that. I did handle it for a long time. It was just… my friends. They started expecting too much. They wanted me to fight better, cause less damage, do better in school, actually hang out with them. It felt like nothing I did was ever good enough for them. I know they didn’t mean it that way, but it hurt. Then I found out I wasn’t ever going to age, and I just… I couldn’t deal with that on top of everything else. So I ran away.”

Danny let out a bitter laugh. “That’s right. The great Phantom ran away. You must think so highly of me.”

“I wish I’d known.”

Danny’s eyes popped open, and he spun to look at Ember. 

“What?”

Ember smiled sadly.

“I wish I had known you were doing so badly. I would’ve tried to help you.”

Danny looked around, as if maybe Ember was talking to someone else. 

“Sorry, are you talking to me? I’m pretty sure you hate me. At least you said so, multiple times.”

Ember laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. “Do you know what the reaction of the Ghost Zone was when you disappeared.”

“I would have imagined celebrations and general chaos.” Danny muttered. 

Ember chuckled at that. “Yeah, you would think so, but that wasn’t it. We were worried. Don’t give me that look! We were. The GIW were still active back then, and you had just disappeared. No one could find you. We were afraid they had finally caught you.”

“Nope. Just me, wallowing in my misery.” Danny tried to smile, but it came off as more of a grimace. 

Ember nudged him with her foot. “Hey, none of that. We really did miss you. Things weren’t the same when you were gone. You know, I had no clue you used to play with Young Blood til years after you were gone. He told me that he still misses those playdates to this day.”

“Youngblood…” Danny smiled at the memory. “He really just needed someone to pay attention to him. Once I started listening to him and playing with him, he stopped causing trouble. He wasn’t such a bad kid once you got to know him.”

“It wasn’t just him. Lunch Lady told me that if you’d still been around, she would have wanted you to be the Godfather of her baby. She ended up picking Klemper.”

Danny stared at Ember in undisguised horror. “I’m not sure if I should be honored or completely disgusted.”

“Yeah, that was pretty much how I felt at the time. The point is, I could go on. Technus, Poindexter, Kitty and Johnny, they all missed you. Heck, even Amorpho liked you, and he only cares about himself.”

Danny wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He opened his mouth- to say what he wasn’t sure- when the truck slowed to a halt. All conversation stopped as the assembled ghosts (and Jack) looked at the doors. There were no more spots to be filled, so they knew that they had reached their final destination.

Danny swallowed, his throat suddenly dry.

“Ember?” 

“Yeah Babypop?”

“I’m scared.”

“Me too.” she whispered as the doors opened, revealing what was in store for them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the same moment, deep underground in a pit made of nightmares, a gray man gasped as a wave of fear hit him.

Pitch Black jolted to his feet, the book he had been reading dropping from numb fingers. 

“Danny!”


	11. Chapter 11

Danny flinched at the bright light beyond the doors. The light felt like nails being driven into his eyes. He barely even felt the hands that grabbed him and dragged him out of the van. It was all he could do to simply stay upright.

The next few minutes were a blur to Danny. He was vaguely aware of instruments being strapped on to him, and he flinched when a needle pricked him, but he was more focused on not throwing up than anything else. 

The world didn’t come back into focus until he was dragged into a long hallway. Danny stumbled as he was shoved into a cell. He fell to his knees, taking deep breaths as he tried to quell the rising nausea. He groaned. It was so unfair. He should not be feeling sick to his stomach; he never ate anything! If he did give in to the urge to throw up, he was sure that he would just end up dry heaving.

Danny lifted his head weakly, looking around. His cell was one of many lining the hallway. They looked more like interlocking cages than cells. All walls were made of bars. He watched as Jack was shoved into the cell next to his. Jack’s face was gray. Danny could tell that his shoulder was hurting him, and the men’s rough treatment wasn’t helping anything.

Danny winced at the sound of doors clanging shut. The sound made his head hurt even more than before. He was starting to feel really terrible. He squeezed his eyes shut and breathed deeply through his nose. 

“You alright kid?”

Danny opened his eyes, squinting a little. He wasn’t sure who had spoken, but he nodded in the voice’s general direction.

“Headache…” he muttered, shutting his eyes again. A moan from the cell next door caused his eyes to fly open. 

“Jack…” he whispered. He scrambled over, his own pain forgotten as he grabbed the bars separating him from Jack. 

“Jack! Are you okay? Come here, I’ll pop your shoulder back in place.”

“Thanks,” Jack gasped out, his voice strained. He inched over to Danny, who grabbed his arm. It was a little awkward working through bars, but he was able to get Jack’s shoulder back in alignment.

Jack didn’t make a sound through the whole process. He swung his arm a few times, testing its mobility, before leaning against the wall, putting his head on his knees. Danny watched him worriedly. He didn’t look that much better.

“Jack? What’s wrong?”

Jack turned his head, looking over at Danny. He tried to smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Nothing really, I just don’t like being underground.”

Danny winced. He had forgotten about that. Jack and human buildings didn’t mix, especially when those buildings were below ground level. It didn’t help that Jack had been trapped in doors at the North Pole for a little over a month before this. He was already aching for the sky, this would just make things worse. 

Jack suddenly cried out, curling in on himself. Danny lurched forward, not sure what to do. 

“Jack?” he called helplessly. 

“St-staff.” Jack managed to grit out between clenched teeth. “They’re doing something with it.”

Alarm shot through Danny. “It’s not broken, is it?”

Jack smirked a little. “Trust me, we would know if-”

He cut off abruptly. His mouth opened and closed a few times, before he toppled over, unconscious. 

“Jack!” Danny leapt to his feet, unconsciously trying to fire an ecto-beam at the bars. As soon as he tried, agony spiked through him. He crumbled to the ground, previously forgotten pain coming back with a vengeance. 

Time blurred again as Danny struggled to stay conscious. He noticed that someone was whimpering and he vaguely wished that they would stop. 

An unknown amount of time later, the pain receded enough that he was able to actually be aware of what was happening around him. He opened his eyes (when had he closed them?) and waited for the world to stop spinning. 

“Danny?”

Danny blinked, peering in the direction of the voice. He finally managed to make out Ember in the cell directly across from him. She looked worried.

_ Huh.  _ Danny thought aimlessly.  _ I wonder why she’s so worried. _

“Ember?” he asked out loud. “What… what’s going on?”

Ember looked even more worried at Danny’s question. “I don’t know Babypop. Those men took a bunch of measurements and samples and then shoved us in here.”

“Oh.” Danny nodded, before frowning. “Wait… where are we?”

“I don’t know that either sweetheart. Are you okay? You were curled up on the ground for almost an hour, just... crying. Are you hurt? And what about your friend? He won’t wake up…”

Danny’s forehead wrinkled as he tried to make sense of what Ember was saying. Finally he gave up. He hurt too badly to be thinking right now. So instead of answering any of Ember’s questions, he simply muttered, “Hurts” before passing out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

William Elliston walked down the hall, repressing the urge to smirk. Finally. _Finally._ His father had tried for years to catch the Phantom, but he had failed. William remembered his father telling him about Phantom at night before he went to bed. William grit his teeth. His father had spent more time chasing after Phantom than he had ever spent with him. But it didn’t matter. He had won. He beat his father and Phantom. 

Good spirits restored, he strolled into the main lab of the compound. 

“Doctor Paterson. How are the samples?”

The doctor looked up. He was a very bland looking man. Years spent indoors had bleached the color from his skin. But despite his dull appearance, his mind was still sharp.  **(shameless pun XD)**

“Ah. Elliston. Yes, these samples are amazing! The best I’ve ever had. Ever since those laws protecting ecto-entities went into effect, it has been impossible to get good reliable information on these creatures.”

“I am glad you are pleased.” William said. “What have you learned so far?”

“Most of the samples are fairly similar, low level entities. They will be good for general tests on live ectoplasm. Then there are a couple of more powerful ones. We will want to be more careful with them. Would be a shame to destroy them carelessly.”

William nodded. “And… Phantom?”

Doctor Paterson lit up. “Oh, he is fascinating. He is different from every other ghost I have ever studied.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” Paterson hurried over to a separate part of the lab and began flipping through notes. “He is unique. Samples of his ectoplasm contain what appears to be human blood. I x-rayed him, and he has an actual bone system, internal organs, the whole shebang. I’ll have to do some more tests, but he appears to be a whole new species of ghost. In fact, I would go so far as to label him half human.”

William grinned. “I always knew there was something off about that freak. What about his friend?”

“Jack Frost… now that one is interesting.” Doctor Paterson walked over to a stand that was holding Jack’s staff. “Well, first things first, he isn’t a ghost.”

William frowned. “What do you mean? You’re not telling me that kid in there is alive.”

Paterson chuckled. “Oh no, most definitely not. He is clinically dead. But he does not have any ectoplasm in him at all. Whatever he is, it is something else.”

William nodded thoughtfully. He had suspected that the Frost boy was different, but this was at a whole new level. “If he doesn’t have any ectoplasm, how is he alive, for lack of a better word.”

“He has a regular human body, around the age of seventeen if I had to guess, but there is some sort of strange energy running through it. I can’t identify it, but it is powerful. The same energy is running through this.” Paterson gestured to the staff. “I took a sample of the wood and have begun running tests on it, trying to narrow down exactly what the energy is, but so far I’ve had no luck.” 

William approached the staff, looking at it. An idea had been slowly forming in his mind ever since they found out about Frost, and the doctor’s words had just solidified it. 

“Whatever Frost is,” William said slowly, “Do you think there could be more?”

Paterson nodded aimlessly without looking away from the staff. “It would be more strange if he were the only one.”

At William’s silence, Paterson turned around. “What are you thinking?”

“Other names have been mentioned in connection with Jack Frost.” William said, fingering the staff. Paterson watched him carefully. “Sandman, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, Santa Claus…”

“You can’t be suggesting…” Paterson began, but William cut him off.

“Why not?” WIlliam asked, his eyes alight with a manic spark. “Legends have to come from somewhere! And everything we have observed about Frost lends itself to the idea that he is the real thing! You yourself admit that you can’t figure out what he is, and you have been studying the paranormal for 25 years.”

Paterson looked back at his notes, considering the idea. 

“If that were true…” Paterson cut himself off, shaking his head. “It would change everything. But how would we know for sure? It would be near impossible to prove without capturing another entity of the same type.”

William smirked. “Luckily for us, we have insider information.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny was yanked brutally back into consciousness. He yelped as a strong hand encased his arm, pulling him out of the cell. He heard the ghosts yelling, protesting his removal, but there was nothing anyone could do. 

Danny was feeling better now than he had when he fell unconscious. At least, words made sense again. And he didn’t feel like he was about to drop dead at any second, so that was nice. 

Unfortunately, Danny had a feeling that he wouldn’t be feeling good for much longer. That feeling was strengthened when the men holding him dragged him into a dark room and strapped him to a chair. Once they were gone, he tried to get out, but to no avail. He doubted he could have gotten out at full strength, let alone how he was feeling now. 

A sudden sound caused Danny to freeze. 

“Hello?” he called nervously. He wasn’t sure if he wanted an answer or not. 

“Phantom. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” 

Danny had a weird sense of dejavu as he remembered his meeting with Pitch, but he shook it off.

“Really? I’d like to say it’s a pleasure to meet you but considering you kidnapped me, I’d have to say-”

Danny was caught off by a powerful shock. He screamed, struggling in his restraints until the electricity was turned off. He panted, shaking as he tried to recover.

“Look at you…” the voice returned. “You’re breathing. You really are one of a kind, aren’t you? And now you belong to me.”

The man sounded like he was in awe. There was a definite note of possession in his tone. Danny shuddered. In his experience, it never turned out well when people were creepily obsessed with you.

“Look um, sir. I would love to uh, avoid getting shocked again, so if you could just tell me what you want? That would be really, really great.”

The man chuckled. “No need to be so formal. My name is William. I have been looking for you for a long time, Phantom.”

“Thank you?” Danny wasn’t sure what to do in this situation. Normally when people were this creepy with him, he would banter with them and then kick their butts. That wasn’t really an option right now. 

“You are a polite one, aren’t you. I have to say that’s surprising. All records show you as being a cocky little pain in the butt. Still, that was a long time ago. It makes sense that you have changed since then.”

Danny was getting increasingly uncomfortable. This man had just shocked him, he had kidnapped him and his friend, and yet he was being almost… nice. Danny had never dealt with anyone like this. The closest had been Vlad, but this guy was at a whole different level. 

“You know a lot about me… William.”

“Of course I do. I have been hunting you my entire life. I always knew that I was destined to be the one to catch you. And I did.”

Danny was bordering on panic now. The man sounded completely insane.

“Uh… congrats I guess?”

“Congrats? Congrats? Do you have any idea what I have done to find you boy?” William grabbed Danny’s shoulders, shaking him a little. “I never gave up on you. Even when you went dark for 25 years, I never stopped looking for you. And it payed off.”

William let go of Danny and started pacing, talking quickly. 

“When sightings of you started up again, I was ecstatic. But there was a problem. You were no longer stationary. You were seen all over the world. It is impossible to plan an ambush when you never know where your target is going to be. But did I let that stop me?”

William turned to Danny, clearly expecting an answer. 

“No?” Danny said, terrified by this point.

“That’s right!” William yelled. “I kept looking, and soon I realized that you were most often seen around Burgess. It was your home base of sorts. But that’s not all I learned.”

William grinned. He leaned in close to Danny and whispered in his ear. “Your boy Jack. He is something, isn’t he?”

  
  
Danny stiffened.

“How do you know about Jack?”

William leaned back, looking incredibly smug. 

“All sightings of you were accompanied by tales of another white haired boy, named Jack Frost. We were confused at first, until we learned that belief was necessary to see him. We had dealt with ghosts like that before, so it wasn’t too far of a jump to make. Once we could see him, it wasn’t hard to factor him into our plan.”

William chuckled, leaning against Danny, who fought the urge to cringe away. 

“You know, we weren’t going to move in for quite a bit longer, but than the two of you went missing. I was so scared we had missed our chance that when you showed back up, I knew we had to act immediately. Couldn’t risk losing you.”

William ruffled Danny’s hair fondly. Danny himself felt sick. Apparently the whole ‘when it rains it pours’ thing was true. Their beating had directly led to their kidnapping. Danny felt the hysterical urge to laugh, but he managed to hold it in. 

“About Jack…” William ran a hand through Danny’s hair. “What is he? He clearly isn’t a ghost, but he is something supernatural. Are there others like him?”

Danny’s blood ran cold. No. No, he wouldn’t tell this lunatic about the Guardians. He refused.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The hand running through his hair stopped. Danny held his breath, afraid of William’s response.

“Really.” William’s voice was flat, a total contrast to his passionate speech from before. “I find that difficult to believe, considering we have recordings of you and Jack discussing other spirits.”

William leaned in close to Danny’s face. His hand clenched, grabbing a chunk of Danny’s hair, and yanking it harshly. Danny cried out, shocked by the sudden violence.

“Want to reconsider your answer?” William asked, yanking on Danny’s hair again. 

Danny didn’t hesitate. He spat in William’s face. 

“I’ll never tell you anything about them.”

William’s face didn’t change. He slowly let go of Danny’s hair and wiped the spit off of his face. 

“Well. I guess we will just have to find out the hard way, won’t we.”

After that, there was only the sound of electricity and screams. 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh... don't pay too much mind to any random ghost oc's that pop up. They aren't important and won't come up again. They were just added for drama!

Tooth hovered in midair, chewing her finger nails. Normally she would never do something that could potentially damage her teeth, but she was so stressed that she didn’t much care at this point. Jack and Danny were missing. She had been worried the first day they couldn't find them. Sandy had joined ranks the day after. It had taken Bunny and North another two before they really started to get scared.

Normally, Tooth wouldn’t have been so worried so quickly, but she knew Danny and Jack, and she knew that despite their apparent immaturity, they would never do this to the Guardians. Danny and Jack would never go off the radar immediately after a huge disaster. And they would never disappear for this long either. Not by choice anyway.

“Oh, I knew we should have kept a closer eye on them.” she muttered, gnawing at her fingers.

“They wouldn’t let us. They begged to be left alone. We did the right thing. Besides, they can take care of themselves. They’re a lot stronger than you give them credit for.”

Tooth glared at Bunny. 

“I know they’re strong. That’s why I’m so worried. They wouldn’t go down without a fight, and if they lost that fight, then they’re probably hurt right now. I’m just saying, they look like easy targets and it may be a good idea for us to stick closer to them in the future, to keep things like this from happening.” 

“They’re not little kids, Tooth!” Bunny said, exasperated. “We can’t keep them locked up 24/7, no matter how much we may want to. I’m pretty sure Jack would go insane.” 

“Oh, and how do you think he’s feeling right now?” Tooth exploded. “And as for them being little kids, I don’t care how old they technically are, Jack is seventeen and Danny is fourteen. They should not have to take care of themselves!”

“But they did, didn’t they!” Bunny yelled back. “That’s what this is really about, isn’t it? You feel bad because we were never there for them when they needed us. Both of those kids had to take care of themselves for a long time because we failed them! And we keep on failing them over and over and over again!”

“Enough!” North yelled. Sandy looked shocked as he stared at Tooth and Bunny, who were both glaring at each other. “Fighting isn’t helping. We all agree that we did a bad job with Jack and Danny, but that is not the main issue right now. We need to find them.”

Tooth deflated.

“My fairies have looked everywhere. They haven’t found a single trace.”

The few baby teeth that were hanging around whimpered. All of the baby teeth loved Jack and Danny. Tooth had been forced to scold quite a few of them for going off course when Jack and Danny were nearby. The ice boys were the only things that could distract the baby teeth from their job consistently. For the baby teeth to be unable to find even a clue to their location was really distressing them. 

The other Guardians’ expressions fell. They all knew that the baby teeth were their best bet for finding the missing boys. If the baby teeth failed, they weren’t entirely sure what they were going to do. 

“My, my, my. This is sad, isn’t it?”

The Guardians tensed up, assuming battle positions. Bunny grit his teeth.

“Pitch.” he growled, pulling out his boomerangs.

“Hello Guardians.” Pitch’s voice echoed around the room, but the man himself did not appear. “You seem to have misplaced something. Or was it two somethings?”

“Pitch, if you had anything to do with their disappearance, I swear…” North trailed off, and Sandy filled the silence by cracking his whips. 

“Relax North. I had nothing to do with it. Do you honestly think I would be capable of capturing both of them in my current state?”

All of the Guardians relaxed a little at Pitch’s words. It was true, there was no way Pitch could beat Danny and Jack in a fight. 

“If you had nothing to do with it, then why are you here?” Tooth asked, still suspicious. She would never forgive Pitch for stealing the teeth, let alone her fairies.

Pitch finally emerged from the shadows. He grinned sinisterly at the Guardians before opening his mouth.

“I am here to help you.”

Silence fell over the room. The Guardians stood still, no expression on their faces.

“Sorry, what?”

Pitch glared at Bunny.

“Don’t make me say it again…” he muttered. “It’s embarrassing.”

Sandy sent up a series of symbols that none of the Guardians understood, but that Pitch found perfectly clear.

“I  _ don’t  _ want to help,” he spat. “I hate all of the Guardians, and everything you represent and I wish you would all disappear off of the face of the earth!” 

Bunny stared at Pitch with a mix of anger and confusion on his face. “Then why are you here?”

Pitch shifted uncomfortably. 

“Well… technically Phantom is not a Guardian and… he is someone I might, possibly… consider a…”

Pitch mumbled something indecipherable under his breath. The Guardians glanced at each other, confusion written on their faces.

“Sorry, what?” North asked.

“He’s a friend! Alright? I consider Phantom a friend and I don’t want anything to happen to him.”

Ignoring the Guardian’s shocked faces, Pitch continued speaking. 

“I’ve spent these past few weeks tracking them down. It took a while to narrow down where the fear was coming from, but I’ve finally done it. Now we can go and get them out, but we better move fast, because we have no idea what shape they will be in and-”

“Wait, hold up! You know where they are?” Bunny interrupted.

Pitch scowled. “I just said that.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” North boomed. He grabbed Pitch enthusiastically, ignoring the gray man’s displeased hiss. “Where do we go?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ember paced her cell anxiously. She wasn’t sure how long they had been here, but it felt like forever.

The experiments… sucked, to put it simply. They were painful, and uncomfortable, and they made you feel small, like you weren’t real person. 

Still, Ember knew that she had it easy. The weaker ghosts had much worse experiments, more dangerous. The stories that some of them told made Ember shudder.

But no one had it as bad as Jack and Danny. While the rest of them were just specimens, William was weirdly obsessed with both of them, and more importantly, he was obsessed with finding more Guardians. He had been trying to drag the information out of the ice boys, but they steadfastly refused to say anything, no matter what he did to them.

Ember flinched as the screaming from the lab increased in volume. Jack was in there right now. The scientists had quickly figured out the connection between Jack and his staff, and they never hesitated to take advantage of it. 

Danny shifted in his sleep. Ember glanced at him nervously, hoping he wouldn’t wake up. Danny wasn’t doing well. He was clearly sick, and the experiments and ‘questioning’ were not helping. Ember was scared of what would happen if something didn’t change. 

“Calm down Ember. You're not accomplishing anything by wearing yourself out.”

Ember growled at Skulker, and started pacing faster.

“Calm down! How can you tell me to calm down when they are doing who knows what to Jack in there?”

“You think that this isn’t killing me? I would love to go in there right now and destroy all of these pathetic humans! But draining your energy by constantly pacing is not going to help.”

Ember was about to yell back when the screams from the lab died down. Ember stopped pacing, turning toward the door to the lab.

The doors opened and two men dragged a limp Jack into the hallway. Ember had given up on yelling at them days ago. All it did was make her throat hurt. The men always ignored her. They didn’t even have the decency to act annoyed, which was just aggravating.

As soon as Jack was back in his cell and the men were gone, Ember rushed forward, anxiously looking Jack over for new injuries. 

Jack and Danny’s clothes had been exchanged for white t-shirts and shorts the first day in the compound. Jack had complained for hours about it, but Ember didn’t mind so much. It made injuries very obvious, especially at first. Days later, the clothes were so stained that new marks were harder to make out.

Ember’s eyes ran over Jack’s back and arms as he struggled to sit up. There were plenty of bruises on his arms, from needles and fingers, but none that seemed new. Same with his back. There may be bruising that she couldn’t see, but nothing was bleeding. 

Ember was just about to calm down when Jack lifted his head, revealing his face, including a rather spectacular bruise that had not been there when he was taken that morning. 

Skulker whistled. 

“That’s quite the shiner you’ve got there,” he commented. “What did you do to get that?”

Jack smirked, his eyes lighting up even as his arms trembled in their attempts to hold him. 

“Nothing really. Apparently William doesn’t appreciate my sense of humor.”

Skulker grinned, but Ember was furious.

“Seriously Jack? We’ve talked about this. The last thing you need to be doing is antagonizing that lunatic! He doesn’t need more reasons to hurt you.”

Jack’s smile faded. He leaned against the wall of his cell, too exhausted to stay upright on his own. His eyes were shadowed as he looked at Ember.

“He was talking about Danny. Hearing him say those things… I just couldn’t…”

Ember felt her own anger drain away. Everyone had heard the way William talked about Danny. Disturbing didn’t even begin to cover it. She couldn’t really blame Jack for trying to draw attention away from his younger friend. 

Jack looked away from Ember and turned toward the boy in question. He looked troubled as he took in Danny’s uneasy sleep.

“He’s fine.” Ember said quietly. “He’s been sleeping since you left.”

“That’s why I’m worried.” Jack said, still looking at Danny. “Danny doesn’t sleep, ever.”

“That’s not true.” Skulker argued. “He was always tired back in Amity. He yelled at me multiple times for interrupting his sleep when I attacked him.”

“No wait.” Ember said thoughtfully. “Danny mentioned that ‘if he knew he could give up sleep back then, he would have done it.’ So I guess he stopped sleeping when he left Amity?”

Ember looked questioningly at Jack, who nodded.

“Yeah. He told me that the ectoplasm in his system is what runs his body, so he doesn’t need stuff like food and sleep.”

Skulker sat up. “His body runs on ectoplasm?” he asked slowly, standing up.

“Yeah.” Jack said, looking confused. “Is that so surprising? I mean, he is half ghost, and you guys run off of ectoplasm.”

Skulker shook his head. “I always assumed that he used ectoplasm, not that he depended on it. If that is true, it explains his current condition.”

Ember perked up. “What do you mean.”

Skulker tapped on the collar around his neck. “What do you think these things do?”

“Provide one heck of a shock?” Jack muttered.

“Well, yes” Skulker acknowledged. “But it’s more than that. They are draining the energy from our ectoplasm.”

Jack looked away from Danny, suddenly interested. “What? How do you know?”

Skulker scoffed. “Please. I am an expert in ecto-technology. I can tell what these things are doing. It is the reason that we cannot fly or phase or use any of our abilities. We only have enough energy to hold ourselves together.”

“But Danny is different from normal ghosts. He doesn’t function the same way.” Jack said, fear creeping into his voice.

Skulker nodded grimly. “If I had to guess, I would say that Danny’s ectoplasm doesn’t have enough energy to run his body properly. That is why he has starting to sleep again. His body is getting energy the only way it can.”

“We have to get that collar off of him! If we don’t it could kill him.” Jack struggled to his feet. He only managed to take one step, before falling to the ground. 

“Jack! Sit down. You are in no condition to do anything right now.” Ember said. She was twitching with the urge to help, but there was nothing she could do.

The truth was, Jack was just as sick as Danny. Ember had managed to drag the truth out of Danny one day when Jack was in the lab. Apparently, being in human buildings was bad for elementals. Being held in the compound was killing Jack just as surely as it was killing Danny, but he refused to acknowledge it. Jack seemed to think that if he pretended he was okay, he would be. Danny told her that was how Jack dealt with trauma, but it still annoyed her when Jack said he was fine when he clearly wasn’t.

Jack huffed, shoving himself into a more upright position. He was about to argue with Ember when a buzzer sounded. All three looked at the doorway to the lab, waiting.

The buzzer signaled the end of the day. Every morning, certain ghosts were taken to the lab, only to be returned when the buzzer sounded. The only exceptions to that rule were Danny and Jack.

The assembled ghosts sat quietly as those who had been today’s experiments were returned. It was only when the men began to leave that Jack realized something was wrong.

“Hey!” he shouted. “Where’s Ana?” A ghost had never been kept overnight in the lab before, not even Jack or Danny. The fact that one of their number was missing was... worrisome.

One of the men paused and turned back to the captive ghosts grinning.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about her anymore. The doc wanted to see how much voltage a ghost could take at one time. Apparently it wasn’t much. She just kinda dissolved into a puddle. Doc wants to try again tomorrow, so you lot better start praying, or whatever it is you freaks do.”

With that, the man left, slamming the door behind him. He left dead silence in his wake as the ghosts tried to process his statement. 

Jack swallowed, turning to look at Ember with big eyes. He broke the silence, saying what everyone had been thinking.

“We need to get out of here.”


	13. Chapter 13

Pitch narrowed his eyes at the building. 

“This… will be more complicated than I thought.” he muttered.

Bunny snorted. “No kidding. There must be fifty guys in there, and those are just the ones we can see. There are bound to be more on the lower levels. I hate to say this, but we may not be able to take them all by ourselves.”

“Maybe we could. I mean, especially if they don’t see us coming....” Tooth tried to be optimistic, but even she sounded uncertain.

Sandy shook his head, flashing a snowflake, a clock, and an arrow pointing at the building.

Pitch nodded. “Sanderson is correct. They have had Jack for more than three weeks now; they definitely know he is different from ghosts by this point. Odds are they will be able to see us, maybe even detect us with the same machinery they use to detect ghosts. Regardless, we can’t take the chance.”

Tooth opened her mouth to argue, but she was cut off by North, who growled. 

  
  
“It can’t be done, not with just five of us. Maybe if Pitch was at full strength… but then the rest of us would most likely not be much use, so that wouldn’t help… Or maybe....”

The others watched North deliberate. North was the master strategist of the group, and even Pitch acknowledged his abilities. If it could be done, North would figure it out.

Finally North shook his head. “It just can’t be done. We need more people or we have no chance at success.” 

Bunny huffed, frustrated. “Well, what if we bring in your yetis? You’ve got quite a few of those, and if we combine them with my guardian eggs, then maybe-”

“Yes!” North yelled, cutting Bunny off. “We use yetis. But not mine. They are toy makers, not warriors. Only a few specialize in fighting. But, we happen to know an entire tribe of warrior yeti.”

“What are you talking about?” Pitch asked, but Tooth’s eyes widened in understanding.

“Are you talking about Frostbite?” she asked, looking excited for the first time in weeks.

North nodded animatedly. “We know that there are many of them, and they adore Danny. I’m sure that they will help us rescue him.”

“I’m sorry, who are you talking about?” Pitch asked, but he was ignored by the Guardians.

“How would we get to them? They live in the Ghost Zone, which is not exactly accessible.” Bunny argued. “Besides, we don’t really know anything about them.”

North shrugged. “What other choice do we have?”

Sandy waved a hand over his head, flashing a fast series of images. When the Guardians stared at him blankly, he turned to Pitch in exasperation, flashing more symbols. When Pitch ignored him, Sandy huffed and flashed some more symbols, the last of which caused Pitch to get an extremely offended look on his face. 

“Excuse me? I’ll have you know, that only happened once, and it-”

Pitch was cut off by even more sand images. 

“Fine!” he snapped, clearly annoyed. He turned to the other Guardians who had been watching the exchange with interest. 

“Sanderson would like me to remind you that this... Frostbite said that the barrier was thin in Amity Park, whatever that means. I would like to protest my exclusion from what seems to be common knowledge about this mysterious Frostbite because it seems-”

“That’s right!” Tooth interrupted. “Frostbite said that basically anyone could get through in Amity because of all of the spectral activity. We could get through and then find him in the Ghost Zone.” 

“The Ghost Zone is huge!” Bunny yelled. “Even if we could get there, how could we find him?”

“Ask directions?” North said with a shrug. Bunny’s face twisted in incredulous outrage, and he was about to start yelling again when he was distracted by Pitch’s own yell.

“No!” the King of Fear yelled. “I’m not an interpreter. If you and the Guardians are going to be such good friends, they should learn to understand you on their own!” 

Sandy was unimpressed with Pitch’s outburst. He merely flashed a dizzyingly quick series of images, most of which Pitch ignored, until one caused him to adopt a hurt expression.

“That was uncalled for,” he muttered, looking away. Sandy looked a little sheepish and flashed what was clearly an apology. Pitch merely rolled his eyes and turned back toward the Guardians, muttering “nefarious do-gooder” under his breath.

“Sanderson would like me to inform you that he can find Frostbite when we reach the Ghost Zone. He also says I would fit in there since I’m a scary kind of guy and ghosts are scary, so…”

Pitch trailed off, looking at the Guardians. “Really? This is the time no one cuts me off? Ridiculous. And you lot wonder why I dislike-”

“Really Sandy?” Bunny said with more than a touch of skepticism. “How do you plan on doing that? Last I checked, ghosts don’t sleep.”

Sandy turned expectantly to Pitch, who looked at him incredulously.

“Are you kidding me? No, I refuse to do this until I am given some decent courtesy here. I may be evil, but at least I have manners, which is more than I can say-”

“It doesn’t matter!” North boomed. “If Sandy says he can do it, than I believe him.”

Bunny sighed, rubbing his face with his paw.

“Fine, fine! Let’s do this. Let’s go find Frostbite.”

“Yay!” Tooth cried, fluttering around excitedly. “We are finally going to get them back!”

Pitch was the only one who did not look excited. 

“I would like to let you all know,” he said softly, but with venom. “That you have a serious problem with interrupting peo-”

“No time to talk,” North interrupted. “We must hurry. No time to waste!”

Ignoring Pitch’s indignant face, North pulled out a snowglobe. “Amity Park.” he whispered, before smashing it on the ground. Laughing, he ran into the portal, followed by the other Guardians.

Pitch came last, muttering fiercely under his breath.

“You better appreciate this, Phantom.” he said as he stepped into the portal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny held back a groan and spat out a mouthful of blood. He leveled a look at William.

“That, was uncalled for.” he said, apparently unbothered by the punch to the face.

William growled.

“You know what I think was uncalled for?” he asked, leaning so that his face was only inches from Danny’s. “Your clever little comments about my parentage!” He was yelling by the end, and Danny winced as spit flecked his face.

“What, so you’re allowed to torture me while being a generally creepy guy, but I’m not allowed to make some witty comments to add some flavor to our interactions? Sensing a double standard here.”

“You aren’t allowed to do anything!” William screamed. “I own you! You have no rights!”

When Danny just stared blankly at him, William screamed in frustration. He turned away from the boy and began to pace, cursing under his breath.

Danny let out a careful breath and leaned his head against the back of his chair, closing his eyes. Ember would probably kill him if she knew what he was doing, but he didn’t let that stop him. He understood how people like William worked. William may be a little more unhinged than he was used to, but that didn’t mean that the same basic principles wouldn’t work.

Danny let out a humorless laugh. Yeah right. The truth was, he had no clue what he was doing. He had never been in a situation like this before, and he was terrified. The only reason he constantly insulted William was because it was familiar. It was something he was used to, and that made it seem less scary. It hurt a bit more, but Danny could deal with pain. 

_ Besides,  _ he thought with a smirk.  _ It’s hilarious to see William so upset. The guy needs to develop a thicker skin. _

Danny sat up straight as William approached again. The man had pulled himself together, and once more appeared calm, cool, and collected.

William smiled at Danny, who watched him warily.

“You are a funny one, aren’t you? I can see why you are friends with Frost. He can’t keep his mouth shut either. Of course, most of the time it’s because he is screaming.”

Danny grit his teeth and didn’t say anything. He hated when William talked about Jack. Of course, Jack hated when William talked about him, so he supposed they were even on that count.

“You don’t scream nearly as much as Jack does.” William continued thoughtfully. “I wonder why that is? Do you have a higher pain tolerance? Do you show pain in a different way? Or maybe, messing with that staff just hurts him more than anything we could ever do to you. What do you think Danny? Come on, I want to hear your opinion.”

Danny closed his eyes and tried to imagine that he was anywhere else. He may talk big game, but his time in the compound was wearing him down. He could barely walk anymore, and his headaches were getting worse and worse. None were as bad as the one he had got when he tried to use his ghost abilities, but he felt that soon that would no longer be the case. 

“Hm. Not so anxious to speak your mind now are you?”

Danny glared at William.

“Oh, I have plenty to say, I just don’t feel like having any bones broken today. You know how it is.”

William nodded carelessly looking off into the distance. Danny squinted at him suspiciously.

“What are you doing?” he finally asked when the silence had stretched on for an uncomfortable length of time.

_ Not that anything is comfortable here.  _ He thought snidely to himself.

William turned back toward Danny, a strange look on his face.

“I am tired of our game, Phantom. I know that we could break you and Jack the old fashioned way, and a large part of me wants to do that. Despite certain, lapses of judgement, I really do enjoy our sessions together.”

William paused here and gave Danny a significant look. Danny looked back incredulously.

“Um… if you are waiting for me to say, me too, you are going to be waiting for a long time.”

William sighed, a long suffering look on his face.

“This right here is what I’m talking about. Your attitude is extremely problematic Danny. I mean, what ever happened to respecting one’s elders?”

“Elders?” Danny said. “Last I checked, I was quite a bit older than you man. You should be respecting me.”

William pinched the bridge of his nose and took several deep breaths.

“Teenagers.” he muttered. “They always have to have the last word.” 

He looked back at Danny.

“I have run out of patience Danny. Your time is up. It’s a shame, really. I could have made your stay here quite comfortable. Ah well, how do the french say it? C’est la vie.”

Danny swallowed, his anxiety increasing. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, it’s nothing really.” William began. “It’s just, my head scientist is absolutely fascinated with your anatomy. You are unique for a ghost after all. The problem is, he has learned basically all he can about it at this point without some more… invasive tests. He has been begging me to allow those tests on you for a week now, but I’ve held off because I thought you could still be persuaded to see things my way. I see now that I was wrong.”

William sighed, looking regretful. “It really is a shame. At least Doctor Paterson will be happy. I’ll tell him to start sharpening his scalpels.”

“What?” Danny yelled, twisting fruitlessly in his chair. He was desperate to get away, to make this not be happening, but it was no use.

William grinned, the fake remorseful look slipping away.

“That’s right Phantom. Playtime is over. Time to pull out the big guns. Oh, and don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll survive the procedure. Dr. Paterson is a wiz with a knife, and he will be especially careful with you. I wonder how spirited you will be after you’ve been vivisected. Who knows, maybe we’ll have to cut open your friend too before you talk. There are endless possibilities!”

Danny could barely comprehend what William was saying through his terror. The only thing that really stuck out was that he was threatening Jack too.

“No. No no no, please no, I’ll do anything, just don’t…”

William only laughed in the face of Danny’s pleading. 

“Too late Phantom! Guards, take him back to his cell. He needs a lot of rest, tomorrow will be a big day for him!”

Danny didn’t bother to resist as he was dragged away from the lab. It was finally happening. One of his greatest fears was coming to pass. As the reality of his situation finally hit him, a wave of crippling fear washed over him. It was over. There would be no last minute rescue. His fate was sealed. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pitch rolled his eyes, standing apart from the other Guardians who were talking to some oversized yeti. He was not one for exchanging pleasantries. All he wanted to do was rescue Danny and then leave.

Pitch staggered as fear suddenly overwhelmed his senses. The closer he was to a person, the more their fear affected him. This had never been a problem before seeing as he wasn’t close to anyone, but now…

Pitch felt someone holding him up. He cracked open his eyes to see North looking at him with... concern?

Pitch shook off the strange feeling seeing that concern caused in him and stood up straight.

“No more talking.” he said urgently. “We need to get them out. Now.”


	14. Chapter 14

Frostbite fingered his ax as he stared at the door to the compound. Danny was in there. Every instinct he had was screaming for him to storm the building and not stop fighting till he rescued Danny, but he knew it was a bad idea. They had to be careful. If they weren’t, the men in the compound could wipe out all the prisoners before they got to them.

Pitch Black was similarly twitchy. The fear coming from the building was making him anxious. He couldn’t tell exactly what Danny was afraid of from this distance, but he could tell it was bad. The only bright side was that he was feeling stronger than he had in years. That would be useful if it came down to a fight.

The Guardians shifted uncomfortably. The silence in the group was palabale. None of them knew what to say, not to Pitch, not to the Far Frozen, not even to each other. They were having a hard time functioning without Jack and Danny. The two boys had brought life into the group. With them gone, it was as if their heart had been ripped out. 

Multiple sighs of relief were heard as Baby Tooth zoomed up to the group. They had all agreed that they should send one of Tooth’s fairies in to scout the building. The mini fairies could go anywhere, and they were the smallest of the rescue party. If anyone could get in and out unnoticed, it would be one of the baby teeth. Baby Tooth had volunteered for the job when she heard. More like, she refused to allow any of the other mini fairies to do it. The group had been waiting for her for an hour.

“Baby Tooth!” Tooth cried, relieved that the fairy had returned safely. “What did you see? Did you find them?”

The assembled ghosts and spirits watched as Tooth listened to Baby Tooth’s report. Her face went through a range of emotions, from excitement, to anger, finally ending up on worry. 

“She found them.” Tooth said, turning to the group. “They’re being kept underground, in cages.”

“Underground?” Bunny asked. When Tooth nodded, he shared an uneasy look with North. If Jack had been underground all this time…

“What else?” Pitch asked. “Surely she saw something more useful.”

Baby Tooth bristled, glaring at Pitch. She had what one may call a grudge against the Boogeyman, with good reason. Pitch scowled right back and opened his mouth only to pause. His frown deepened, but he kept quiet and turned away. They didn’t have time to argue right now.

Tooth cleared her throat awkwardly and continued. 

“Uh… right. Well, according to Baby Tooth, the prisoners are kept on the bottom floor. There are three stories between us and them. The second two are pretty empty. They look to be more labs and holding facilities for future use, but they are abandoned right now. We should be able to get through those without any problem. It’s the first floor that will give us trouble.”

The Far Frozen all perked up, visibly paying more attention. Frostbite stepped forward, eager to start making a definitive plan. 

“As far as Baby Tooth could tell, the first floor is the garrison for the guards. It’s also where all the main defenses are. Luckily, there aren’t many of those. They clearly aren’t expecting anyone to break in.”

Frostbite nodded thoughtfully, already forming a plan in his head. He looked at the assembled spirits and told them what he was thinking.

“As far as I can tell, our main challenge is the shear number of guards they have. The Far Frozen could take care of that, keep them busy while the rest of you sneak in. I doubt their machinery will be able to register you if we create enough ghostly activity to overload them.”

The Guardians looked a little uneasy. 

“I dunno…” Bunny said. “Their alarms could very easily pick us up if they modified them using data from Jack. Can we really risk it?”

The group was interrupted by Baby Tooth, who twittered loudly. Tooth looked surprised, before nodding. 

“Baby Tooth has a point.” she said. “The monitors didn’t pick up on her. We may have larger signatures, but clearly the machines have a hard time detecting us. If the Far Frozen put up a big enough fight, we very well could be able to get through.”

“We’ll just have to chance it.” North decided. “Frostbite, is there anything your people need from us?”

Frostbite frowned. “My only worry is the long range defenses on the outside. I’ve been able to pick out quite a few from here, and they have the capability to take us down before we get with in ten meters of the building. If we can’t get in, then we can’t help.”

“Well, Sandman and I can get rid of those. And I can probably get the Guardians into the building without anyone noticing, provided we have enough cover.” The whole group spun to look at Pitch, who was standing apart from them. He glanced over, aggravated at the surprised looks on their faces. 

“What? I said I would help, didn’t I?”

Sandman nodded gleefully. He was the only one who hadn’t looked surprised at Pitch’s statement. Then again, nothing seemed to shake the little man for very long. 

“Er… right then. If everyone is clear on the plan…?”

When everybody nodded at North’s question, he turned to Pitch and Sandy. 

“Well, go ahead.”

Pitch rolled his eyes, but he complied. Both spirits summoned their respective sands and sent them toward the building. Sandy looked a little disapproving of the nightmare sand, but Pitch merely scoffed.

“Come on, you didn’t expect me to give it all up, did you?” he asked the Sandman. Sandy merely shook his head ruefully, concentrating on the job.

It was odd, North thought, looking at the two spirits. They were complete opposites, one tall, thin, and dark, while the other was short, round, and golden. They stood for completely opposite ideas, and when the Guardians and Pitch collided, Sandy was always their main weapon against the Boogeyman. 

And yet, in this moment where they worked together for a common goal, it was almost as if they fit together, two complementary halves.

The image was broken when Sandy and Pitch turned back around, apparently done.

“That should do it.” Pitch said carelessly. “We were able to sneak our sand into the machines, clogging them. They shouldn’t bother you now.”

“Why don’t you just do that to all them then?” Bunny asked.

Pitch let out a long suffering sigh. “Yes, because filling a machine designed to detect supernatural occurrences with a supernatural substance is the best way to stay under the radar. Brilliant idea Aster. Absolutely brilliant”

Bunny growled, not at all happy about being put down by Pitch Black. “Then what exactly did you just do if not stop the technology from registering ghosts?”

“We used our sand to jam the firing mechanisms, you idiot.” Pitch spat. “They will still notice the Far Frozen, they just won’t be able to do anything about it. It’s the best we can do.” 

“It’s fine,” Frostbite interrupted, eager to stop a fight. “It is enough. The Far Frozen are a warrior tribe. We will be fine.”

Pitch and Bunny both backed down, though they didn’t stop glaring at each other. As soon as he was sure that they weren’t about to attack each other, Frostbite turned back to the other Guardians. 

“We had better move out before they notice anything is wrong. Give us ten minutes, then go on in. We’ll make the fight last as long as we can to give you a chance to get them out unnoticed.”

At the Guardians nods, Frostbite and his warriors began approaching the building.

Frostbite gripped his ax tightly in anticipation. 

_ Hang on Danny. We’re coming. _

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny was curled into a little ball, shaking. Ember watched him from her own cell, worried. It seemed that all she ever did was worry. Danny had been like that all night. She had been unable to get anything from him. She had no idea why he was so scared, but she knew that it had to be bad for him to be reacting this way.

A quiet groan had her gaze flicking over to Jack. Jack had lost consciousness hours ago, and they had been unable to wake him. Ember had hoped that Danny could help when he got back from the lab, but he had simply curled up and refused to respond to anything she said. 

Ember resisted the urge to pull out her hair, especially considering that wouldn’t really work for her. There was nothing she could do. As far as she could tell, Jack was dying, and Danny had finally snapped under the pressure. It was over. 

A wave of hopelessness struck her, and she sat down, wrapping her arms around her knees. Skulker sat up from where he had been lying and looked at her.

“You stopped pacing.” he said blankly. Ember nodded miserably. Skulker frowned. “You never stop pacing.”

“What’s the point?” Ember yelled. “You were right, it doesn’t help anything. Nothing we do can help anything.”

Skulker’s mouth dropped open. He had never known Ember to give up, and it scared him more than he was willing to admit. He was trying to think of something to say when the alarm signaling the start of the day went off. 

Ember jerked back to her feet, running to the front of her cell. She watched as two men walked into the hallway. They stopped in front of Danny’s cell.

Danny had stopped shaking when the alarm sounded. He looked more like a statue than a person. The stillness was broken when the door to his cell opened. 

“No!” Danny screeched, scrambling away from the men. He pressed himself against the wall so hard it seemed as if he was trying to disappear. The men ignored Danny’s palpable panic and grabbed him, dragging him kicking and screaming down the hallway. 

All of the ghosts stared in shock. Danny hadn’t put up such a big fight in the entire time they had been in the compound. Ember was the first to recover, and she yelled after the men.

“What’s going on? What are you going to do to him?”

Ember honestly wasn’t expecting an answer, but the men stopped just short of the door to the lab.

“Nothing to worry about, the Doc just wants to get to know Phantom here a little bit better. Or at least, get to know his insides better. Phantom’s got an appointment with a lab table and a scalpel.”

Ember felt as if she had been punched in the gut. No. They couldn’t mean…

She crumpled to the ground as the men dragged Danny away. Everything seemed truly hopeless. Their numbers had continued to dwindle after Ana’s death. Fewer than half of the original captives were still alive. Jack was eerily still in his cell, and she had no idea if Danny was ever coming back. For the first time since their capture, Ember began to cry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pitch grit his teeth and resisted the urge to strangle North. Honestly, one would think he would be a little more stealthy considering his job. The Sandman may be insufferable, but at least he was quiet. 

Pitch had managed to get the Guardians onto the first abandoned floor with his shadow traveling  **(#notPercyJackson)** but that was it. Even going that far had completely wiped him out. While he looked as composed as always, in truth he was finding it difficult to remain standing. All he wanted to do was lay down and sleep for a week, but he couldn’t stop until Danny was rescued. 

Distant sounds of fighting accompanied the Guardians and Pitch as they made their way through the building. Baby Tooth was leading the way, often darting ahead to look for guards before zipping back to alert Tooth of her findings.

They finally found a staircase and began to descend further into the building. The farther down they went, the more fear Pitch could feel. It was almost overpowering. Pitch felt sick as he started to get flashes of what the prisoners were so afraid of. 

Pitch clapped a hand over his mouth in an attempt to hold back his nausea as one particularly vivid image hit his mind. His shock increased when he realized that this image was coming from  _ Danny _ .

“Oh no…” he mumbled. Before any of the Guardians could ask what was wrong, Pitch was gone.

“What the… Where did he go?” Bunny muttered. 

All of the Guardians shared uneasy looks, but there wasn’t much they could do about the missing Boogeyman. He had kept his promise and gotten them inside, so they couldn’t really complain, but that didn’t make them feel any better about his disappearing act. 

They continued silently through the building, nerves increasing until they finally made it to the floor where the prisoners were being held. 

The Guardians had almost reached their goal when they were discovered. A yell from behind caused the Guardians to spin, only to be faced with a group of guards. Bunny reacted instantly, pulling out his boomerangs and throwing them.

“North,” he yelled. “You and Sandy go ahead. Tooth and I will hold them.”

North turned and ran without responding, Sandy following closely behind. The time for stealth was over. The goal now was to get in and out as quickly as possible. 

North didn’t pause when he reached the door to the holding cells. He merely pulled out his sabers and cut it down. He did stop once he entered the hallway, shocked by the appearance of the prisoners. 

Ember’s head shot up as a large man burst into the hallway. She was so shocked that it took her a moment to recognize the figure as Nicholas St. North, aka Santa Claus. Her confusion only grew as the Sandman also entered the room. 

Ember watched in awe as the Sandman sent out streams of his famous sand. The sand entered the locks on all of the doors, unlocking them and freeing the captive ghosts inside. 

“I didn’t know he could do that.” She said faintly, before she was distracted by North.

“Jack…” North’s voice was full of anguish as he caught sight of the youngest Guardian. He hurried into the cell, and pulled Jack into his arms. 

Ember walked up to him cautiously.

“He passed out sometime yesterday.” She said, her voice thick with tears. “I tried to wake him up but…”

North gave her a strained smile. “It’s not your fault.” he said quietly. He ran a hand through Jack’s hair. “Why is it always you?” he asked.

When Jack failed to respond, North’s face crumpled.

“I’m sorry Jack.” he whispered. He took a deep breath, composing himself, before he reached into his pocket. He pulled out a beautiful ice sculpture of a snowflake. 

North wrapped Jack’s limp fingers around the item. “I made this to give to you when we rescued you Jack. I’m just sorry that it wasn’t soon enough.”

A somber silence fell over the group as North held onto Jack. North squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to hold back tears, and so he missed the start of the miracle. It was only when Ember gasped that his eyes opened.

North stared in wonder as the the snowflake sculpture began to glow. The light seeped into Jack, who suddenly gasped, his eyes flying open. Jack’s eyes met North’s, glazed and pain filled, but definitely alive. 

“Jack!” North cried, squeezing the boy tight. When Jack began to make strangled choking sounds, North hastily released him. 

“I- I don’t understand.” Ember stammered. 

“The snowflake.” North said, his eyes full of wonder. “It was made out of his element and full of magic. Touching it gave him the boost that he needed.”

Jack looked at the group surrounding him, clearly confused. 

“North?” he mumbled. “What are you…”

He shook his head, his eyes clearing a little. 

“Where’s Danny?”

Ember cried out, suddenly reminded of what had happened only minutes ago.

“They took him.” she said, grabbing North and dragging him upright. “They took him to the lab, you have to help him, they are going to cut him open!”

North was instantly moving, running to the other end of the hallway, slashing open the door. He ran into the lab, only to stop dead still.

North wasn’t entirely sure what he had been expecting to see in the lab, but it certainly wasn’t Pitch Black holding a sobbing Danny, rocking him back and forth as he tried to calm the distraught child down. 

North walked slowly into the room, ignoring the scattered bodies of scientists  **(#unconscious, not dead)** He sat down next the pair, not saying a word.

Pitch didn’t look at North. He continued rocking Danny in his arms, whispering softly to him. Eventually he spoke.

“I couldn’t let them do it.” 

North nodded. 

“I know.”

They continued to sit silently until Sandy and Ember, supporting a weak Jack between them, entered the room. 

“Danny.”

Danny perked up at Jack’s voice. He held out an arm to his friend, and Jack went to him instantly. Soon, Jack, Danny and Pitch were all wrapped up in one big ball of arms and tears. 

Eventually, both white haired boys went still, having cried themselves to sleep. Pitch handed Jack to North before standing up with Danny in his arms.

Pitch cast one last glare toward the scientists before he turned his back on them. He held Danny a little closer as he looked at North.

“Let’s get them home.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah! Almost forgot to update this!! Sorry! Here it is.

Pitch felt… weird. He was standing in the North Pole,  _ without  _ trying to destroy, attack, or in any other way cause trouble. He felt completely wrong-footed by the situation. He really wished he could just leave, but Jack and Danny were currently being looked over by North and the medical yetis, and he couldn’t leave until he was sure they would be okay.

_ Wait, they?  _ Pitch jerked, startled by his own thoughts.  _ No, just Danny. I don’t care about Frost. I don’t. _

Pitch would never admit it, but seeing Jack so weakened had legitimately scared him. He still saw Jack as something of a kindred spirit. That was why he had been so angry when Jack had rejected him. He had hoped that he had finally found someone who would understand, who would take his side.

In retrospect, it had been a foolish idea. There was no way someone as kind and fun-loving as Jack would want what Pitch was offering. Jack would have been miserable in the world Pitch wanted to create, and that was the last thing Pitch wanted. But at the time, he had so angry at Jack’s rejection that he had acted without thinking. He regretted it now, especially after seeing the state of Jack’s staff when they rescued him. He couldn’t believe he had ever been willing to hurt Jack in that way, the same that those…  _ monsters  _ at the lab had. 

Tooth fluttered around the room, never still. It was aggravating. Would it kill her to stand still for a moment? Honestly, just watching her was giving Pitch anxiety.

Sandman seemed to think the same thing, though no doubt in a much kinder way, for he went up to the distressed Tooth Fairy and patted her on the hand. She flashed him a grateful smile.

“Sorry, I’m just so worried. I’m glad that we got Jack and Danny back, but what’s to stop this from happening again?”

“Trust me, it won’t.”

The spirits in the room all spun to see Ember, Skulker, and Frostbite. Ember was the one who had spoken.

“What do you mean?” Tooth asked, not at all reassured.

Skulker scowled. “What those men did was illegal. There are laws against experimenting on ghosts. They finally went into effect because of the Manson girl. She must have campaigned for almost thirty years before she got her way. I’ll never know how she did it.”

“Anyway,” Ember interrupted. “The point is, you can get serious jail time if you get caught doing it. And guess what we found in the lab?”

Ember’s smile turned dangerous. “Piles and piles of evidence. Thanks to a certain anonymous tip to the police, William and his gang will be going away for a long time.”

Tooth’s normally cheerful face was dark. 

“Good.” she spat.

Pitch nodded in agreement, the look on his face enough to give a person nightmares.

“Let me know what hole they get thrown in.” he said to the ghosts. “I can’t help but feel like those men are going to be having nightmares every night for the rest of their lives.”

Tooth snorted. “That’s too good for them.”

“Indeed,” Pitch acknowledged. “But I would probably get in trouble with the moon if I straight up killed them, so it will have to do.” 

Bunny groaned from his corner.

“Ugh, stop agreeing with each other. It’s creepy.” he scowled, fiddling with a paintbrush and egg.

Pitch gave him an amused look.

“Like you feel any differently. I saw some of those men you were fighting. Don’t you think you used a little more force than was strictly necessary?”

Bunny flushed. “That’s different…” he mumbled, avoiding eye contact. 

Pitch snickered, but he left it alone. He had bigger things to worry about than the Easter Rabbit. 

All mirth left the room when North entered, looking old and tired. 

“How are they?” Bunny asked, finally putting his paintbrush away. He hadn’t made any progress on his work anyway. 

“They’ll live.” North said wearily. “But beyond that….”

North sighed.

“Danny is severely malnourished and dehydrated. He changed back to his human form the instant we got the collar off. We can only guess that the collar was trapping him in his ghost form. Besides that, he has many cuts, burns, bruises, several of his bones are fractured… It will be a long process to heal, but hopefully he will make a full recovery.”

North’s face scrunched in frustration. “The main problem is that he is so drained. We can only wait for his ectoplasm to recharge naturally. Unless…”

North trailed off as his gaze fell on Ember and Skulker. Both ghosts looked almost completely recovered from their ordeal, even though it had been less than a day. 

“How… how are you two so recovered? I know that Danny isn’t like most ghosts, but it would stand to reason that you two would still need some time to get to this level.”

Frostbite spoke up before the other two could.

“It’s because of this.” he said, holding up what looked like a small green pill. “I gave one to each of them. It’s highly concentrated ectoplasm. It gives a boost of energy to any ghost that takes one. It would probably help Danny but…”

Frostbite hesitated, looking unsure. “I wouldn’t give it to him while he’s in his human form. Humans and ectoplasm don’t mix. Once he has enough energy to go ghost, give it to him. It will speed his recovery.”

North took the pill gratefully, handing it to a yeti to put in a safe place. An uncomfortable silence fell over the group. 

“What about Jack?” 

Tooth’s voice broke the silence. North looked troubled as he began to speak.

“Jack is very similar to Danny injury wise. Normally I wouldn’t be very worried about his recovery except…”

“His staff.” Tooth said in a tight voice. 

North nodded.

“It’s condition is frankly appalling. I did my best to find all the missing pieces, but I have a bad feeling that parts were completely destroyed. I have no idea what effect that will have on Jack. I want to say that he will recover but…”

North shrugged helplessly. “I just don’t know.”

“I may be able to help.” 

The Guardians turned to Frostbite in surprise. Frostbite hurried to explain.

“My people are guardians of many ghostly relics. We have extensive knowledge on such things. I know that spirits and ghosts are different, but there may be some information in our library on how items such as Jack’s staff work. It will take some research, but hopefully I can find something.”

“Anything you can find would be a great help.” North said gratefully. All three ghosts nodded before leaving, eager to start researching.

With the ghosts gone, another gloomy silence began to fill the room. It was broken when a yeti burst in, warbling at full speed. 

“What?” North sped out of the room without another word. The others glanced at each other before following.

North stormed into the infirmary, the other Guardians close behind.

The problem was quickly apparent. Danny was twitching on his bed, letting out quiet moans and whimpers. It was obvious what was happening- a nightmare.

Bunny reacted instantly, grabbing Pitch and slamming him against the wall.

“Pitch!” he yelled, his face twisted in fury. “You had better stop this right now or I swear-”

“It’s not me!” Pitch denied, anger on his own face. “Do you honestly think that I am single handedly responsible for every nightmare on the planet? Even at the height of my power, that is something I could only dream of.”

Bunny released Pitch abruptly, shock clear in his body language.

“You mean… you don’t…” Bunny suddenly looked unsure of himself.

“Of course not.” Pitch spat. “Fear is natural Bunnymund. There is a reason none of you have been able to kill me. Sometimes people just have nightmares. I may benefit from it, but I don’t necessarily cause it.”

Pitch watched with something that was almost amusement as confusion and shock flashed across all the Guardians’ faces. He wasn’t sure whether he should take their vast overestimation of his power as an insult or a compliment.

“Honestly, did none of you know that?” he asked derisively. He sighed as one hand shot into the air. 

“You don’t count, Sandman.” he growled. Sandy put his hand down sheepishly. 

In the silence that followed, Danny’s whimpers sounded louer. Tooth flew over to him, placing a hand on his head. 

“Can’t you stop it Sandy?” she said pleadingly. Sandy’s brow furrowed, and he shook his head. He flashed a symbol that none of them could recognize. Without thinking about it, they turned to Pitch for an explanation.

Pitch sighed, not bothering to protest. 

“Like I said.” he muttered. “Natural fear. Sanderson can’t do much about it if he doesn’t get there first. If I really was the cause of this, he would be able to undo it.”

Pitch hesitated for a moment, before adding petulantly, “He’s always been stronger than me.”

Sandy patted Pitch’s hand in a comforting manner. Pitch snatched his hand away as if it had been burned, and retreated to the corner of the room. 

Silence fell again as the Guardians watched their fallen members. Pitch was the only one not watching them. Instead, he was looking at the Guardians, noting how hopeless and sad they seemed. Normally Pitch would be glad to see the mighty Guardians laid so low, but considering the circumstances…

Pitch groaned, rubbing his head. He noticed the glares that certain Guardians leveled at him, but he refused to acknowledge them. Instead, he crossed the room approaching Danny.

“What are you doing?” Bunny asked, but Pitch ignored him. Reaching Danny’s side, Pitch placed a finger on the child’s forehead. Almost immediately Danny calmed, falling back into a peaceful sleep. Pitch allowed a brief smile to cross his face before he schooled it back into a neutral expression.

Turning away from the bed, Pitch tried to return to his corner, but his path was blocked by the Guardians, who were all looking at him with varying levels of confusion. Except, of course, for the insufferable Sandman. He looked like he was about to burst with pride. 

Pitch scowled at the tiny golden man.

“Don’t go getting any ideas Sandman.” he warned. “This was a one time deal. I don’t want to see you saying anything about it.”

Sandy nodded, but Pitch could tell that the dream weaver didn’t believe him. His expression was too smug. Pitch was about to stress his point again when North spoke up.   
  


“I don’t understand.” he said slowly. “What just happened?”

Pitch rolled his eyes. The Guardians’ ignorance really shouldn’t surprise him by this point, but their complete lack of understanding when it came to spirits outside their group was frankly astonishing. Granted, he had actively tried to keep this particular trait hidden, but the general point still stood.

“I removed his fear.” Pitch finally said. He frowned, immediately regretting his words. Removed sounded too… nice. Too good. He shook his head, quickly correcting himself.

“I mean, I absorbed his fear.” There. That sounded much better. Simply absorbing fear to strengthen himself, no altruistic motivations at all. Definitely not. Just good old fashioned self-preservation.

Pitch’s self-justification was interrupted by Tooth’s voice.

“Why did you do that?” 

Pitch refused to look at the Guardians, tapping his fingers restlessly on his arm. 

“Because it was annoying to watch you all snivel. Honestly, you are all pathetic, with your feelings and compassion. Absolutely disgusting.” Pitch was doing his best to sound convincing, but judging by the knowing smiles that were growing on the Guardians’ faces, he was failing miserably.

Pitch cursed inwardly. This was exactly why he had wanted to keep this particular ability secret. It was bad enough that Sandman was always giving him smug looks without the rest of the Guardians joining in. 

Pitch glowered, feeling that he was rapidly losing control of the situation. 

“Look, clearly none of you believe me when I say you are aggravating to the utmost extreme” (Pitch very purposely ignored Bunny’s snort and mutter of ‘oh, we believe  _ that. _ ’) “But it is the truth. I had absolutely no other motivation in what I just did, and there is absolutely no chance of it ever happening again. Especially considering how you are reacting.”

North held up his hands in a placating manner. “Of course, of course. We wouldn’t dream to think otherwise.” 

Pitch felt a strong urge to throw something at the Russian. Anything to wipe that insufferable smirk off his face. He huffed and walked toward the door. He couldn’t handle anymore  _ feelings  _ right now.

“Hey.” It was Bunny’s soft voice that caused to to pause with one hand on the door handle. He stopped, but he didn’t turn around.

“Thank you.” This time Pitch did turn around. He stared at Bunny with wide eyes, certain he had imagined those words. Bunny merely looked back steadily. There was no trace of sarcasm anywhere on his face. If Pitch didn’t know better, he would say the rabbit was sincere. 

Pitch turned away with a disdainful snort. As if he would care about gratitude from the  _ Guardians  _ of all people. Letting the Guardians see his soft side was a mistake, one that would not happen again.

But as he thought of Danny, sleeping peacefully, and of the quiet words of thanks from a creature he was sure hated him, Pitch thought that maybe it had been worth it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure the rescue flash back happens next chapter... I can't remember for sure and I don't feel like checking. Ah well! I guess we'll see!


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry...

It hurt. Danny wasn’t sure what ‘it’ was, but he knew that it hurt. In fact, everything hurt now that he thought about it. 

_ So just stop thinking,  _ he thought, borderline hysterically. Unfortunately, now that he was aware, he couldn’t sink back into the nothingness that he had occupied before. 

That didn’t mean that his newfound awareness was all that great at the moment. To be perfectly honest, he had no idea where he was or what was going on. The only thing he was really sure of was that he was in pain. And he was scared. The fear hit him suddenly and powerfully. Danny was absolutely terrified. 

Again, he wasn’t sure what he was scared of or why, but he was sure that the fear was valid. There was a man…

William! Danny didn’t think it was possible to be more afraid than he already was, but he was proven wrong as he suddenly remembered the past month. Danny’s terror spiraled out of control as he struggled against the memories assaulting him. 

Just when Danny felt he was at his breaking point, a feeling of calm swept over him. It was definitely unnatural, but Danny didn’t care as long as the fear went away. As he sank back into the darkness, he could have sworn he heard a soft voice.

_ Sleep, little one. It will be better when you wake. _

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny drifted in and out of dreams, never truly waking. Some of his dreams were pleasant, filled with snowballs and the open night sky. Most of them were not, filled with blood and screaming. Whenever the fear became too great, that calming voice came back, taking away his fear and causing him to sink back into the emptiness, only to start the cycle all over again. It was a little aggravating.

Danny was grateful to the voice, don’t get him wrong. The fear he had experienced at the beginning of this whole mess had been overpowering, and he hadn’t been ready to handle it. If it hadn’t been for the calming voice, he was sure he would have gone insane. So yes, he was grateful, but now he kind of wished the voice would just let him wake up. He was tired of alternating between nightmares and nothingness. He was ready to face his fear if it meant he could get out of this purgatory he was stuck in.

As his latest nightmare began and the fear began to take hold, he pushed back against the unnatural calm he could feel approaching.

_ No.  _ he thought.  _ It’s okay. I can handle it this time. _

The calm feeling hovered at the edge of his perception. Danny could feel the hesitation, before it finally withdrew completely.

_ If you are sure… _

Danny wasn’t sure, but there was no time to second guess himself as the nightmare took hold.

_ He couldn’t move, couldn’t think, couldn’t  _ **_breath_ ** _. He had never been so scared in his life. What… what were they…. _

_ Hands. There were hands on him, dragging him, he was fighting but he kept moving forward not backward, closer instead of away, please no, he didn’t want to, get away! _

_ A table. When had there been a table? He had been in the hallway, now he was on a table and he couldn’t move and there were faces now. Faces in front of him, above him, looking at him. He didn’t like them. He wanted them to go away, go awaygoawaygoaw-. _

_ A flash of light to the side. What was that? There were hands again, not touching him, but holding something. Something sharp, and suddenly there was screaming. Who was screaming? Why were they screaming when he was the one about to be cut open. If anything, he should be the one who was screaming. _

_ Pain. Someone hit him. Yelling. Telling him to shut up. Oh. He was the one who was screaming. That made more sense. _

_ The faces were talking, but he couldn’t understand them. He didn’t mind. They could talk forever if they just didn’t touch him. _

_ Quiet. Why was it quiet? The faces weren’t talking anymore. The sharp thing was back and now it was coming toward him, touching him, tracing his skin, not cutting, not yet, measuring, considering, oh no, oh no, please don’t, no no no nononononono…. _

_ Suddenly the sharp thing was gone. It was dark. There was screaming again, only this time, it wasn’t him. Good. They should scream. They should scream just like they made Ana and Casey and Winter and Zare and  _ **_Jack_ ** _ and… _

_ Too many. Too many gone. His face was wet. Crying? When had he started crying? Now that he’d started, he couldn’t stop.  _

_ Hands. Hands were touching him again. But these were good hands. He could feel it, the cold inside him. He recognized these hands. _

_ The good hands freed him, took him off the table. But he was still crying, still scared.  _

_ Because the table was still there. The table and the sharp things and the faces and the hands, not the good hands, the ones that hurt and hurt and hurt. _

_ The good hands held him. And it wasn’t just hands, but a person. A good person. The good person would protect him. He would. The good person… _

“Pitch!” Danny yelled, sitting bolt upright in bed. He immediately curled in on himself, pain flaring through him. Apparently sudden movements when one was gravely injured was a bad idea. He whimpered as he tried to ride out the waves of agony.

He heard someone sigh next to him. 

“Honestly Phantom. I go through all the trouble of rescuing you, and you just go and injure yourself again. No gratitude.”

Danny looked with wide eyes at Pitch Black. He was... confused. He was in North’s workshop, that much was clear, but he wasn’t sure how. Last he remembered, he was in the compound with all the other ghosts. He would like to think he had been rescued, but it seemed unlikely that the Boogeyman would be allowed free reign to sit at his bedside at the North Pole in real life, so this was probably some sort of dream. 

Except… he had just woken from a dream. And in that dream…

“Pitch!” Danny cried again, surging forward and wrapping his arms around the dark spirit. Under any other circumstances, the look on Pitch’s face would have been hilarious, but Danny was too busy trying not to break down to relish it.

“Is this really necessary?” Pitch muttered, holding his arms awkwardly out to the side. “I know that you hero types like physical affection and all, but I-”

“Thank you.”

Danny whispered the words, but Pitch clearly heard him. The spirit of fear hesitated briefly, before carefully wrapping his arms around Danny.

“You are very welcome little one” he said softly. Danny squeezed tighter, burying his head in Pitch’s neck. 

They stayed that way for an uncertain period of time before Danny pulled back, looking a little embarrassed. 

“Sorry,” he muttered, staring at his bandaged hands. Three of his fingers were broken. He poked at them nervously, refusing to make eye contact. “I’ve had a bad month.”

“You have no need to apologize.” Pitch said firmly, hiding his own discomfort. “And stop that,” he added, pulling Danny’s uninjured hand away from his broken fingers. “You’ll hurt yourself.”

Danny smirked, a pale imitation of his usual smile, but welcome nonetheless. “I always knew you cared.” he teased.

Pitch huffed and looked away.

“Don’t be ridiculous. It was a matter of pride. No one gets to hurt any of the Guardians except me.”

“Yeah sure.” Danny laughed, rolling his eyes. “Keep telling yourself that, you big softy.”

Pitch pretended to be offended, but he was mostly relieved that Danny was able to joke around at all after all that he had been through. The two fell into a companionable silence.

“It was you, wasn’t it? You were the one taking away my fear as I was sleeping.”

Pitch glanced at Danny. The boy was staring at his lap again, but at least he wasn’t aggravating his injuries.

“Yes.” he finally responded, looking away. 

  
  
“I didn’t know you could do that.” Danny offered, still refusing to look up.

Pitch shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Yes, well, I don’t make a habit of broadcasting everything I can do. Being able to take one’s enemy by surprise is a crucial skill when it comes to war.”

Danny hummed thoughtfully, clearly not convinced by Pitch’s blustering. He started picking at a loose thread in the blanket covering him. Pitch wanted to stop him, but he figured that as long as the halfa wasn’t hurting himself, it would be fine. 

Danny finally looked back at Pitch, a strange expression on his face. 

“You saved me.” Danny whispered.

Pitch shrugged one shoulder.

“I mean, only a little.” he muttered, examining his nails in an attempt to appear nonchalant. “The Far Frozen and the Guardians did most of the fighting. All I did was provide a location and a way in. It really wasn’t that big of a deal.”

“Wait, you were the one that found us? That’s a huge deal Pitch!” Danny yelled, frustrated with Pitch trying to downplay his role in the rescue. “How did you find us anyway?”

Pitch sighed, giving up all pretenses. “I could sense your fear.” he said, looking Danny in the eye. “Yours and… Jack’s.”

“Jack!” Danny stiffened, alarm written in every feature. “Where is he? Is he okay? I have to see him!”

“Calm down Danny. Jack is fine. He’s right over there.”

Danny turned, finally taking in the rest of the room. On the other side of the room, close to an open window, lay Jack. Danny felt some of the tension leave his body as he laid eyes on his friend, only for it to come right back as he noticed how terrible Jack looked. The Guardian of Fun appeared to be trapped in his own nightmare.

Pitch rose from his chair and crossed the room to Jack’s side. He ran a hand over Jack’s face, and Danny watched in amazement as the fear drained out of him, leaving the winter spirit to fall back into an easy sleep. Pitch stayed there for a few more moments, his hand resting on Jack’s cheek, before he returned to his chair, sitting back down.

“That was amazing.” Danny breathed, staring at Pitch in awe. The look was quickly replaced by unease. “But um, doesn’t that keep him asleep? Maybe you should just let him wake up.”

Pitch gazed at Jack’s sleeping form, considering. 

“Maybe,” he acknowledged. “But…”

Pitch looked away. “I have caused Jack enough fear in his life. I can’t… I won’t stand idle and allow him to suffer when I could stop it.”

Quiet fell once again as Danny took in that response. The silence was broken when Danny suddenly chuckled.

“And you wonder why Jack doesn’t hate you. Come on Pitch, that was the sweetest, most soft hearted thing I have ever heard. If you weren’t such a drama queen all the time, I bet you would have loads of friends.”

“Excuse me?” Pitch spluttered. “I bear my soul to you, and you respond by mocking me! I’m starting to wonder who the true villain is here.”

Danny laughed, tossing a pillow in Pitch’s general direction. “Still you.” He said with a wide grin.

Pitch caught the pillow and gently threw it back onto the bed. He pretended to be annoyed, but in reality he was thrilled. He wasn’t naive. He knew that Danny wasn’t one hundred percent better. He knew that there would be nightmares, and crying, and all kinds of problems, but that was okay. Danny and Jack were alive, and they would get better. Pitch would make sure of it. He would stand by their sides for the rest of eternity if that was what it took. 

At least, he was going to, until a pillow hit him in the face. Nevermind. He was going to kill Danny right now.


	17. Chapter 17

Jack poked at an elf, disgruntled when it didn’t move. The elves had realized (finally) that he couldn’t freeze them, and they had been taking full advantage of the fact. He was pretty sure they were attempting some sort of elaborate revenge plot, but they were so incompetent that he’d be more worried if they were actually trying to be nice to him. They would probably mess it up and electrocute him by accident. As it was, he was stuck with them constantly hovering around him, being annoying.

Danny snickered, holding an armful of his own elves. For some strange reason, the elves loved Danny. They were constantly swarming him, bringing him cookies, toys, dirt balls, anything they could get their hands on. It would have driven Jack insane, but Danny always took each present carefully, and thanked each and every elf, most of the time by name. Because that was the most mind boggling thing of all: Danny liked the eves back.

Honestly, it was ridiculous. No one liked the elves. Not even North liked the elves. He just tolerated them. But Danny could never get enough of the tiny annoyances, playing weird little games with them that only the elves and Danny understood. It was bizarre.

Jack scowled, prodding the offending elf harder. The only game one should ever play with elves was “Freeze the Elf.” That was just a fact.

“Jack, quit poking Rupert. He isn’t hurting you.” Danny scolded, picking up the elf in question and tickling it. 

  
  
“Rupert?” Jack said in disbelief. “How on earth do you know their names?”

“They tell me.” Danny said fondly, gently putting Rupert down. The elf hugged his knee before toddling off to do whatever it is that elves do. 

“They don’t talk!” Jack yelled, completely exasperated.

“Not to you maybe.” Danny said with a secretive smile.

Jack was about to push the issue when the door to the infirmary opened. Pitch slipped in, letting in a hoard of elves while he was at it.

“Oh thank goodness. Pitch! I need to to take all these elves and shadow travel them as far away as possible. Preferably into the center of the sun.” Jack made big puppy dog eyes at Pitch, begging for him to help.

Danny gasped, scandalized. The elves clustered around them, and he wrapped his arms around them protectively. 

“You wouldn’t dare.” he growled, glaring at Pitch.

Pitch raised an eyebrow, amused.

“Jack, I would love to dispose of these… things, but unfortunately, I can only travel to a pre-existing shadow, and last I checked, there are no shadows in the center of the sun. I’m afraid they will have to stay.”

Jack groaned, flopping back onto his bed, only to wince.

“Owww…” he muttered, rubbing his chest. He had a particularly large cut there, and it hadn’t quite healed.

“Careful.” Danny said absently, not looking away from the strange structure the elves were building out of string and glitter on his lap. It was surprisingly well built for something made by the elves. 

Jack groaned, throwing an arm over his eyes. He was sick of this room, sick of lying in bed, and most of all, sick of the stupid elves.

The Guardians had been understandably distressed that Jack and Danny had been injured again. They had manifested this distress by locking them in the infirmary and refusing to let them leave. Jack wasn’t entirely sure when they would be let out again. Heck, he wasn’t sure if they would ever be let out again. They way Tooth had been talking, they would be lucky if they ever got to leave the North Pole alone again. 

Pitch had been the situations one saving grace. He was the only one who wasn’t too busy to visit them every day. It had been a little weird between Jack and Pitch at first, mostly because Pitch was struggling with the fact that he was actually feeling guilty about something for once, but they had worked through it. Jack didn’t blame Pitch for what happened. It’s not like he knew how painful breaking the staff would be.

The Guardians hadn’t been happy about leaving Danny and Jack alone with Pitch so often, but Danny had thrown a fit when they tried to kick him out of the North Pole. Jack would have given anything to see it, but he had been unconscious at the time. The end result was that Pitch was basically their babysitter, spending most of his time with them in the infirmary. 

Pitch stared with a mix of amusement and disgust as two elves licked each other. 

“I honestly don’t understand what you see in these creatures Danny.” he admitted. Jack pointed at Pitch with his free hand, silently signalling his agreement. Danny merely smiled in response.

“Oh, they have potential. You just have to believe in them.”

That being said, he picked up the strange device that the elves had made. It looked like a tangle of string with a pile of glitter poured on top. Jack opened one eye to look at it before snorting.

“Oh yes,” he muttered. “A true masterpiece.”

“Yes it is.” Danny said with a soft smile. He pulled one random string from the mess, and the whole thing fell apart, only for a series of glittering butterflies to soar forth from the mess. Jack’s mouth fell open and Pitch nearly fell off his chair as the butterflies flew around the room for a few seconds before dissolving into a shimmering mist. 

Danny clapped, grinning at the elves who looked very proud of themselves.

“Very good guys!” Danny praised, “You are getting better everyday. Soon we will be ready to show your work to North.”

“But- what- how did-? They’re elves!” Jack yelled, completely flummoxed.

Danny laughed, rubbing an elf’s head. “What do you think I do all day while you’re complaining about being stuck in this room? I’ve been working with the elves for years but we’ve made leaps and bounds since we were put on strict bed rest.”

Jack blushed. It was true he had noticed that Danny was spending more and more time with the elves, but he hadn’t thought they had been doing anything of importance. He was just so frustrated to be grounded again that he hadn’t paid attention to much of anything else, 

Pitch laughed, picking up one of the elves. It squirmed a little, but allowed the hold.

“Who would have thought that these things could actually create something other than chaos.” he said with suppressed wonder in his voice.

“It wasn’t easy,” Danny admitted. “There were times that I thought we would never get here. I’ve been working nonstop since we were rescued to improve their skills.”

“Oh yes.” Jack grumbled. “Nonstop indeed. So this is why you’ve been staying up all night. Instead of  _ sleeping.  _ Like North told you too. So you can recover enough to go ghost. So you can take Frostbite’s miracle pill. Any of that ringing any bells?”

Danny froze for a second, before continuing to play with the elves.

“I don’t need sleep.” he muttered. “North doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Pitch and Jack exchanged uneasy looks. Danny hadn’t been adjusting well to what happened. Jack had the benefit of 300 years of neglect and abuse. A little more didn’t hurt him much. But Danny….

Pitch leaned forward, placing a hand on Danny’s knee.

“Danny, why didn’t you tell me you were having nightmares?”

Danny flinched away from Pitch’s hand. 

“I’m not.” he denied, but his shaking hands said otherwise. 

“Danny, it’s okay.” Jack said. “You know we don’t care.”

“I do know that!” Danny said, frustrated. “And I know that your response would be to just take the fear away, and I don’t want that! Pitch can’t spend the rest of his life holding my hand when I’m upset. I need to deal with this.”

“Danny, I wouldn’t take your fear if you didn’t want me to.” Pitch said, a little hurt.

“Besides,” Jack added. “There are other ways to help. I mean, you could just talk to us. If you want to get a handle on your fear, than hiding it and denying it aren’t the ways to do it.”

Danny gently pushed the elves away. They went without complaint, scuttering out of the room. Jack distantly wished he had that ability before focusing back on Danny.

“I’m sorry.” he whispered. “I didn’t- I just wanted it to stop. Or, not stop, but…”

Danny trailed off, looking confused.

“You didn’t want to acknowledge it.” Pitch said. Danny looked at him in surprise. “If you talked about it, it meant it was real, that it really happened. So you ignored it, found things to distract yourself with.”

“How did you…” Danny began, his brow furrowed in confusion.

Pitch smiled bitterly. “If there’s one thing I know, it’s fear.”

Danny shrugged one shoulder, looking away. “Well, you’re not wrong. I tried to sleep, I really did!”

Here he paused, looking at Jack earnestly.

“I believe you Danny.” he said softly. Danny nodded a few times before continuing.

“I tried but… the nightmares were…”

Danny shook his head.

“So I stayed awake. I needed something to keep my thoughts busy, so I worked with the elves. Not that I was using them!” he added hurriedly. “I’ve always wanted to help the elves, I swear. I just, figured this was a good time to do it.”

Jack couldn’t help himself. He snorted.

“Sorry!” he said at Danny’s hurt look. “It’s just, do you honestly think we care if you are using the elves or not?”

Danny frowned, looking at Pitch. Pitch scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

“You guys are the worst.” Danny grumbled. “The elves are adorable.”

“They really aren’t.” Pitch said, almost apologetically.

“They’re misshapen triangles.” Jack snorted. “And they’re gross.”

Danny huffed, crossing his arms. “I can’t believe you guys! The elves are great. If you would just give them a chance, you would know that.”

Jack laughed, but he sobered quickly. 

“We’re here for, you know that right?”

Danny looked at Pitch and Jack, before heaving a big sigh.

“Ugh. Fine. I’ll talk to you guys about the nightmares. You’re right about the fact that hiding them won’t help anything. But you’re still wrong about the elves. They’re great!”

“Sorry Danny, but elves are the worst.”

The three in the room jumped as North entered the room, booming loudly. Several elves that had entered with him gave North a dirty look before fleeing to Danny.

Danny sniffed imperiously, gathering the elves in his arms. “I would have thought that you would be on my side.” he muttered.

North laughed, clapping Danny on the back.

“No matter! I am here for another reason. The Guardians and I have decided that you and Jack can leave!”

“Yes!” Jack yelled, and he immediately leapt out of bed and ran toward the window.

“Jack!” Pitch yelled, grabbing him with strands of nightmare sand.

“What?” Jack whined, trying to get out of the grip.

“I meant the room. Not the North Pole!” North said, clutching his chest. “Jack, you will give me a heart attack!”

“Ugh, why?” Jack asked as Pitch set him back on the bed.

“Well, for one thing,” Danny said, “We are on the fifth floor. And you can’t fly right now. So jumping out that window wouldn’t have gone too well for you.”

“Ah. Yes…” Jack blushed for a second, when North’s words registered.

“Wait, so we can leave this room?” he asked eagerly.

“Yes, but-”

Jack was gone before North could finish his sentence, cheering loudly as he ran down the hall.

Danny peered after him, still content to sit and play with his elves.

“He’s going to kill himself.” he said matter of factly.

North groaned as a loud crash echoed through the workshop.

“I’ll get him.” the Russian muttered, running out of the room.

Pitch sighed, rubbing his forehead.    
  


“Why do I put up with you all?” he muttered.

“Cause you love us.” Danny said cheerfully.

Pitch scowled, but he didn’t deny it. And he didn’t leave, even though he had threatened to do so every day since he first arrived. Pitch didn’t leave, not even when North dragged Jack back covered head to foot in ash. Pitch stayed.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry! I was out of town yesterday and didn't have access to a computer or reliable internet. I'm so ashamed. Well, here it is! The grand finale! To be honest, I didn't really like this chapter when I first wrote it, but looking at it now, it's not so bad. Hope you guys like it.

“NO! You are not leaving the Pole. That is final!”

Jack glared at Tooth. It had been three months since he and Danny had been rescued, and they hadn’t been allowed outside once. Jack had tried to be patient, but he was pretty sure that if he didn’t get out soon, he was going to go insane.

“You can’t keep us in here forever.” He spat, frustration making his tone sharper than usual.

“We can try!” Tooth shot back.

Jack blinked, his anger replaced with surprise, and hurt. 

“You don’t mean that.” He said quietly. “You wouldn’t do that to us.”

Tooth’s own anger faded a bit as she took in Jack’s expression. She softened her voice.

“It’s for your own good. Jack. You and Danny are too vulnerable out on your own. You need to stay where we know you are safe.”

“Locking us indoors for the rest of eternity won’t keep us safe, it will destroy us!” Jack yelled. “You know that!”

“You won’t always be indoors.” Tooth denied. “We’ll go out together on trips. It will be fun! You’ll see.”

Jack stared at Tooth blankly. 

“You are insane if you think that could ever be good enough.” He said blankly. And with that he turned on his heel, walking out of the room.

“Jack?” Tooth called, looking nervous. 

“Don’t worry, I’m not leaving the Pole.” Jack called back, his voice bitter. “You’ve made sure of that.” He slammed the door hard on his way out, making his displeasure known.

Tooth deflated. Why couldn’t Jack see that this was for the best? Did he want to get hurt again?

“You are being unreasonable.”

Tooth flushed, turning toward Pitch.

“What would you know?” She spat. “It’s because of people like you that Jack needs protection!”

“Hm." Pitch looked unbothered by her anger. "And yet, it is people like you that ensured that he would never feel comfortable accepting it.”

Tooth wilted, her anger draining away. There was too much truth in that statement for her to argue.

“I just want him to be safe.” She whispered.

Pitch rolled his eyes. “This won’t accomplish that. Jack will get out, sooner or later. He cannot be contained for long. All you are accomplishing is making him hate you.”

Tooth felt her anger flare again. 

“You would know all about that, wouldn’t you? How dare you judge me when your actions toward Jack were a thousand times worse than anything I have ever done.”

Pitch snorted, not looking the least bit intimidated.

“That’s the strange thing, isn’t it?” He said mildly. “Jack has never hated me. Not even when I manipulated his emotions, when I broke his staff. Even then, he never hated me. Because he understands me.”

“But you,” Pitch continued, a sickly smile on his face. “You Guardians. Oh, you should _feel_ the mess of emotions that comes up when he thinks about you. He  _ hated  _ you. You were supposed to be the good ones, but you abandoned him. Don’t think he’s forgotten that. He’s forgiven you, because he’s too nice for his own good, but he has never forgotten. And I don’t think he’s ever managed to understand you either, even after all these years. You certainly don’t understand him.”

Tooth wanted to argue. She wanted to scream and yell and spit in Pitch’s face. But she didn’t. Because the one thing she wanted to do most was prove Pitch wrong, and she couldn't do that. They didn’t understand Jack. They were constantly making mistakes around him, making him angry, or sad, or confused, or something. That was why they’d been so happy when Danny showed up. Here was someone who had a chance to actually help Jack in a way that they never could. 

Pitch looked almost unbearably smug.

“Now if you’ll excuse me,” he said. “I’m going to go talk to Jack and Danny. Because they actually  _ want  _ to spend time with me.”

And then he was gone, leaving Tooth alone with her thoughts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

“They are being ridiculous!” Jack yelled, pacing back and forth in the infirmary. Danny watched him, eyes tracking his movement around the room. “Do they honestly think that this will help?”

Danny sighed. He was normally the more patient one, but even he was starting to get antsy. He hadn’t been inside for this long in  _ years.  _ He never thought he’d learn to love the outdoors as much as he did, but here he was. Funny how things change when you’re almost a century old. 

“They’ll let us go eventually.” Danny reasoned. “Tooth is just overreacting.”

Jack snorted, clearly unconvinced. It had been almost a week since Jack’s confrontation with the Tooth Fairy, and the tension at the North Pole was obvious. Jack was refusing to speak to any of the Guardians, ranting to Danny and Pitch instead. Danny hated to say it, but he was finding himself on Jack’s side. He had found himself being noticeably cool toward the Guardians, and he couldn’t find it in himself to feel bad about it.

“I mean, you’d think that we were children, the way that they-”

Jack cut off abruptly as the door opened. The Guardians entered the room, looking sheepish. Jack huffed, turning his back on them, sitting down on the windowsill. Danny didn’t move from his perch on his bed, but he did give a pretty impressive glare. 

“Jack, Danny, we wanted to apologize.” North said nervously.

Danny raised an eyebrow. Jack didn’t turn to look at them, but the room got a little warmer, so North took that as a good sign.

“We know that we have been acting irrationally, and-”

“No.” 

North blinked at Tooth in surprise. This wasn’t part of the plan. The fairy twisted her hands together anxiously. 

“I’ve been acting irrationally.” She whispered. “Bunny and Sandy both wanted to let you go ages ago, but I argued against it. I was just so scared that something would happen, and I let it get the best of me.”

Tooth glanced at Jack before looking back at the ground.

“I just felt so… guilty Jack. We left you alone for so long, and we still don’t really know what happened to you in that time. I guess I was trying to make up for all those years you were alone. I didn’t realize that what I’m doing now is hurting you just as much as what I did back then. So I’m sorry.”

For a long moment, Jack didn’t say anything. Tooth deflated, certain that she had forever ruined things with the winter spirit, when Jack chuckled.

“Calm down Tooth. I’ve never really been the type to hold a grudge.”

“For which we are very grateful.” North said sincerely. Jack full on laughed at that.

“You should be.” he said cheerfully. “I can be pretty terrifying when I want to. Though I’ve got nothing on Danny’s ‘scary eyes.’” 

“Hey!” Danny yelled, blushing slightly. “You promised you’d never mention that again!”

“But Danny,” Jack said with a teasing grin. “They’re so cute!” 

Danny’s eyes narrowed. “If you want to know how scary my eyes can get, may I remind you that I am capable of shooting lasers out of them?”

“Moving on!” North said loudly before a fight could break out. “After some consideration, we’ve decided that it is not within our right to keep you here. You two are free to come and go as you like.”

Danny and Jack both lit up at that. Jack did a literal flip, landing on his staff. Danny snickered, floating up so he could give Jack a high five. 

The Guardians watched with mixed feelings. They were glad that Danny and Jack were happy, but they knew that they would take off almost immediately. They were still worried about something happening to them. 

“Let’s go!” Jack yelled. He yanked the window open and took off. Danny was about to follow when he paused.

“We probably won’t be back for a while.” He said, almost apologetically. “Jack needs time. So just… don’t freak out, okay? I’ll try to send word every now and then.” Then he was gone.

The Guardians just stood there for a while, staring at the open window. Danny’s last words rang in their minds. Of course the boys would want to distance themselves for a while. They weren’t sure what they were expecting.

“Oh quit moping.”

The Guardians jumped as one, turning to see an exasperated Boogeyman in the doorway. Pitch rolled his eyes at their shocked expressions.

“Don’t look at me like that.” He snapped. “You did the right thing. Though the fact that  _ I  _ was the one to push you into it just shows how ridiculous this entire situation is.”

“Aren’t you worried about them?” Tooth challenged.

“No.” Pitch said bluntly. “Why should I be? They can take care of themselves. And if they can’t, you lot will rush in and rescue them. So why bother worrying?”

The Guardians were all slightly taken aback at that. Did Pitch just say that he… trusted them to protect the winter boys?

Pitch seemed to register what he’d said at the same time the Guardians. He shifted a little, obviously uncomfortable.

“Right. Well, seeing as Jack and Danny are no longer here, I’ll just be on my way.”

“Pitch wait!” North called.

Pitch paused, raising a questioning eyebrow.

“You are not what I thought you were.” North said, a sense of wonder in his voice. He looked at Pitch thoughtfully before nodding decisively.

“You are always welcome at the North Pole.”

Pitch’s mouth fell open, and Bunny spluttered. Before any of the Guardians could say anything, Pitch scoffed.

“What makes you think I’d want to come here?” That said, he melted into the shadows, returning to his lair.

Pitch grumbled to himself as he picked up the book he had abandoned months ago when he had felt that pang of fear from Danny. He settled down to read it, but for some reason it didn’t grab his attention a fully as before.

Pitch threw the book aside in frustration. What was wrong with him? He had always felt at home in his liar, but now it seemed too dark, too quiet. There was no laughter, no interesting shapes, nothing. Just cold and dark.

Pitch huffed. Fine. Maybe he would drop by every now and then. But only to rub it in the rabbit’s face. 

Miles away from Pitch’s lair, two boys spun through the air, laughing in absolute joy. Jack looked at his friend fondly. He honestly couldn’t imagine what his life would be like if he had never met Danny. He felt alive for the first time in centuries.

And far, far away, the Man on the Moon smiled. He would always be grateful to the small halfa who had brought two of his loneliest spirits into the light.


End file.
